A New Beginning-Invitational Tourney

[Treeburst155]

My email is up but anything sent to me after 3:15 PM (GMT-6)yesterday to 1PM today I will not get. The Tourney Standings page is still completely down.

EDIT: Jarmo says, "Rockets!! Kettler is firing rockets all around. Many land on map and some closer to my men than his." LOL! I find this extremely funny. It seems John is very dangerous with arty, to every living thing on the map. LOL!! Hang in there, John. You'll get the arty figured out.

Treeburst155 out.

[ 09-06-2001: Message edited by: Treeburst155 ]

[Treeburst155]

Here's the new standings reflecting Berlichtingen's withdrawal. There are now sixteen tourney participants.

Fionn.........309...4...77.25

CapDog........131...2...65.50

Texas Toast...215...4...53.75

Jarmo.........151...3...50.33

Jshandorf......91...2...45.50

Claymore.......32...1...32.00

M. Dorosh......60...2...30.00

John Kettler...44...2...22.00

MickOZ.........64...3...21.33

Fuerte.........21...1...21.00

Ari Maenpaa.....0...0...0

Ben Galanti.....0...0...0

Mr. Spkr........0...0...0

Robert Hall.....0...0...0

Sten Friberg....0...0...0

Treeburst155 out.

[Fuerte]

Berli: You were my only hope! Now I am the last one and I'm afraid it's not going to change.

Ari: We have a very exciting night fight in woods. First I killed his sniper, that was sent forward scouting. Then he killed my scout car. Then I fired his infantry with Badger. Then my Badger got killed by his assault gun. Finally I killed his assault gun. Huh... we are fighting in the left and right edge, I am using fire and he is using sub-machine guns, assault guns, panthers and heavy artillery. Very exciting.

Shandorf: No turns for about five days.

CDIC: He can't kill my tank hehe. But I have already lost this game.

Claymore: We have a city fight, I have some heavy artillery but he has much bigger. I wonder what it is. Rockets?

[Shandorf]

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

[QB

Shandorf: No turns for about five days.

[/QB]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Okay, timewarp boy it hasn't been five days also you must not have got my turn I sent you. I resent it.

Phzzzzt.

Jeff

[John Kettler]

Treeburst155 and troops,

Just try calling in Nebelwerfer fire against a foe whose position consists of a few knowns and many unknowns (sound contacts), much of it

maneuvering in some ill defined manner. The German fire request cycle is long, and making grid adjustments to reflect hostile positional changes only adds to the sweating it out. Had no TRPs to shorten the cycle and improve accuracy.

I did the best I could to position the pattern

so I wouldn't vaporize my own guys, consistent with getting the strike off before it was too late, and I battened down certain friendly units as well. At least my guys were in heavy cover when that end of the board exploded.

While I certainly would've preferred a more concentrated blow on Jarmo's positions, it was much better than no blow at all. Would've loved a tight three rocket cluster like the 30cm one Kingfish dropped on me one time. It leveled half a village.

If my tactical display is correct, all of Jarmo's tanks appear to be Fireflies. One is burning to the left rear of town, one's in town nearby, and two are on the bridge approaches near bridge four. There may well be another one lurking about.

Everything seems to be up in the air, and I'm fighting in multiple directions at once. A deluge of something drove some of my men from a building overlooking bridge two, all around which a firefight rages. Jarmo has infantry and armor in the back of town behind this bridge, but I have troops and armor in sector and am resisting fiercely. Near bridge three I put down so much fire that Jarmo's guys have gone to ground. My Wirbelwind did some good work.

I've already mentioned a brace of Fireflies near bridge four. There may be a PIAT team or some such on my side, and there appears to be infantry on his side.

I may be wrong, but I think this is anyone's game going into Turn 24. Much depends on who does what, what fruit certain initiatives do or don't bear, and how troops respond to fire.

Got a movie turn from Shandorf. He continued to harry some unfortunate infantry, while I blasted mostly him and some of me with VT fire. I shifted some troops as well.

That's all I have for now.

Regards,

John Kettler

PS

Berli's departure sure shook things up, in the standings especially.

[Treeburst155]

I will agree, John, that German arty is tough to use effectively. I have a great deal of trouble with it myself.

Treeburst155 out.

[Capitalistdoginchina]

I seem to be facing Churchills everywhere - is it breeding season or something ?

Fuerte has a stubborn Churchill V111 that has survived 4 fausts and 5 shreck rounds which all missed - but another platoon of infantry is ready to close assault from the rear. Meanwhile his second Churchill is cornered like a rat on the map edge with one platoon and a Shreck team closing in......the hunt is on for the thick skinned beasts, and he can't run away fast enough His Churchill Crocodile lies abandoned on the upper bank - the victim of a veteran Shreck team.

MickOz also has.....er, HAD a Veteran Churchill V111, but a crack Gerbil squad at 12 meters did not miss with the faust

I can lay claim to be the official Churchill hunter, after taking out 2 Churchill Crocs against Kettler my confidence is high, i intend to notch up 2 more Churchill kills within the next few turns which will bring my tally to 6 confirmed so far in this tourney, all taken out by infantry! Each one taken out adds quite a few points to the tally!

CDIC

[John Kettler]

Some further thoughts for the wags here. The games in which I've had the artillery problems

which so many find entertaining all have a common denominator--poor to terrible visibility.

In two completed games in the Invitational and with one in the final turns and the other halfway done, I have had normal daylight exactly once, against Fionn. Against CDIC it was night; against Jarmo it's fog (fog in August?), and against Shandorf, it's nasty fog.

(begin lament)

I know the weather in Europe can be bad, for I saw all the percentage breakdowns and visibility plots during my time as a military analyst, but why must it be bad in practically every scenario I play? Most of my battles have been blind groping about, followed by vicious knife fights at close range to spitting distance.

I've lost lots of men and equipment because the conditions nullified most of the advantages, not just artillery observation, my forces would've had in better visibility. The British line infantry, for example, doesn't want to come under close range fire from FJ, even if in heavy cover. Similarly, a veteran Jagdpanther doesn't want to fight intact, suddenly appeared infantry and PIAT teams at 40m. And, as CDIC delights in pointing out, Crocs don't do well at night against handpicked Panzerschreck teams.

Maybe in my presumed eleven remaining games the sun will again return, but I'll have to wear SPF 1000 and welder's goggles to survive, lest I ignite, so pale and wan have I become. Blood! I need blood!

(end lament)

So laugh all you want. Just wait until you inadvertently stick your head into the hornet's nest, have troops in contact or even intermixed and need support fires yesterday. Hope you enjoy all the shorts!

Regards,

John Kettler

[Capitalistdoginchina]

Hi John,

LOL - You are having a tough time eh? Well, i did mention before that there is a conspiracy.....we all voted for Treeburst to deal you bum map each time

Seriously though, large caliber arty and Heavy tanks are not wise purchases on small maps with poor visibility....hey, what am i saying here, the rest of you guys who i have not yet played don't read this ok :eek:

Just a friendly tip

CDIC

[Ben Galanti]

I think you've just had bad luck there, John (or I've had good luck) I've got 4 (or 5, I'll have to check) maps so far, and all have been daylight, with no percepitation...

Ben

[Treeburst155]

There are 10 maps with poor visibility and 9 with good visibility IIRC. Now that we are down to 16 players (15 games each)there will be 4 maps that players will not see at all. Because of this it is entirely possible players may see more poor visibility maps than clear ones, or vice versa.

Treeburst155 out.

[John Kettler]

CDIC,

You obviously have too much foreknowledge in your games and have become complacent. For your next game I suggest you use the approach Jarmo and I are using in our current game.

Ben,

Maybe I did have a bad run of visibility conditions. Daylight will be refreshing.

Regards,

John Kettler

Edited because of prior brain interrupt.

[ 09-07-2001: Message edited by: John Kettler ]

[Capitalistdoginchina]

Hi John,

I just got a clear map against Claymore - I see lots of possibilities in this one, the town is located down in a deep Valley. I have enjoyed the night battles and fog battles so far.

Against Fuerte my Churchill hunters have added another Mk V111 scalp - a Vet Schreck team claimed the kill. Only one more to go to reach the half dozen tally.

I am bracing myself for a tough battle with my old foe Claymore, i am pondering as to what his most likely purchases will be.....no 105 VT to face this time thank god, i have learned to fear the VT stuff! Since he is playing the square heads this time I can only guess what i will face on the field of battle.

CDIC

[John Kettler]

Would whoever abducted Jarmo please return him? I really want to see what happened after issuing orders for the critical Turn 24, and I haven't heard anything from him since yesterday afternoon when I sent out my turns.

Thanks!

John Kettler

[Treeburst155]

We've got news from the front! CapitalistDogInChina has run over Fuerte 79-21. Congratulations, CapitalistDog!! With three games played, CDIC is hanging right up there with the Irish juggernaut by averaging 70 points per game. The standings site will be updated shortly.

Treeburst155 out.

[Michael Dorosh]

My apologies to all for falling behind with the updating of my standings site. Treeburst, please email me with the updates if possible. The tourney is going so slow, it slips my mind. Work has been hectic, too!

[Michael Dorosh]

Standings updated - if I could ask a favour though - I am tracking which nationalities are winning. Could anyone who has played a game let me know which of the Allies they were playing, or if they were German, what troop type (ie Luftwaffe, Heer, SS, Volkssturm). I'd like to keep this info on the site as well.

[Fuerte]

CDIC: He got a major victory. I could have bombarded his units a bit more if my units hadn't surrendered. I shouldn't have moved the target point. My arty was very big, too big, and very slow. It took 4-6 minutes before they started firing, and when they fired, they hurt my units more. I had too few infantry units. Lesson learned.

Shandorf: He woke up and we are fighting again. He is assaulting in the edge and I in the middle, where the flag is. He would benefit from the PBEM helper buhaha. After the bad start (he killed my Sherman Croco) the battle has become more even, but I am still going to lose this one as well. Not as bad as with CDIC, though (nothing can go that wrong).

Ari: He has succeeded in getting a victory point in the left edge. I have had success in the right edge. Hard to tell who wins here. He still has 4-5 tanks, huh.

Claymore: After the huge bombardment ended, he assaulted with his infantry. I had my men ready in the victory point heavy building, and his units were slauhtered. Buahaha!

[Fuerte]

An odd thing happened in the game with Ari. He had a Fusilier SMG unit, unidentified at the moment. It was in the woods walking directly at me. I had three infantry squads, HQ and mortar sneaking right into its direction, also in woods. Quess what happened? That SMG unit walked directly through my three squads and stopped only at my HQ and mortar. One of my squads noticed the SMG unit and even fired at it, but none of my three units stopped, they just kept on walking. My squads were very close to each other. My HQ started firing at the SMG unit.

In the next turn the SMG unit, containing 5/4 men, killed my mortar. My HQ fired at it, and I ordered one of my squads to run back to my HQ. HQ and the squad killed the SMG unit to the last man, and I didn't have any losses in HQ or squad. Strange... I thought that sneaking would stop if they notice any enemy.

Also Ari killed another one of my Badgers. Not looking so good any more.

[Jarmo]

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

I thought that sneaking would stop if they notice any enemy. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Nope. Sneaking units stop only if they receive fire. Normally moving units don't stop even then, not before they suffer a morale hit.

Anyway, turn 24 against Kettler went really well. My industrious piat team eliminated one more PzIV H. That's in addition to the PzIV and JagdPanther he killed earlier. Deserves a medal, that guy.

Arty scared a few of my men. Using area fire, I killed a "crew?" that I sew sneaking in the bushes around the leftmost bridge.

I think the score will be 2 bridges for me and the rest contested...

[Ari Maenpaa]

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

That SMG unit walked directly through my three squads and stopped only at my HQ and mortar...

Strange... I thought that sneaking would stop if they notice any enemy. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Same here. My squad was also sneaking ahead and noticed your platoon too, but only continued forward. For the next round I gave it pause for some shooting job, but somehow my fusiliers seem to have repeatedly failed in their primary job

Are they suffering from night-blindness for of the lack of vitamines?

Well, I guess you have just managed your troops better in the dark forest. Gotta learn more myself.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Also Ari killed another one of my Badgers. Not looking so good any more. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Unfortunately you still have plenty of Badgers left

To this date I have usually skipped night battles, because they are such a mess. I don't enjoy them too much. So it's been quite a shock to see how effective flamethrowers are in such conditions. A lesson learned, although the hard way.

Ari

[Treeburst155]

I didn't know that little fact about sneaking units. I don't use "sneak" much. I thought a sneaking unit would stop when it spotted an enemy. That means two enemy units, both sneaking directly toward each other will sneak right past each other since neither will fire until fired upon. I think this is fixed in CMBB with the "movement to contact" command.

Treeburst155 out.

[Fuerte]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ari Maenpaa:

Unfortunately you still have plenty of Badgers left <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I wish. You killed another one and THREE halftracks in one turn! Another loss is looming...

[John Kettler]

As far as I'm concerned, Jarmo sold his soul and got added bonuses! He's great tactically, but he's also terrifyingly lucky, even luckier than Kingfish.

Yes, he zapped another Mark IV H this turn while it stalked a tank that was shooting up my infantry. His PIAT teams have racked up one shot kill after kill, and one deadly duo clearly was unfazed by the Nebelwerfer rocket which landed next to it. I say this because it advanced from the rear of one heavy building to the front of the one I was peeking out from, diverting my tank from its task and setting it up for a turret front PIAT shot when it foolishly traversed to engage the infantry. So far, skirts have been useless on my armor.

By contrast, my veteran Panzerschreck team hugely missed infantry in scattered trees with every shot it fired, and my crack sharpshooter, who had a Firefly TC squarely in his sights, died without inflicting a single casualty.

Jarmo was won almost every single important tactical toss-up since the game began, the chief exception being when one of my now dead Mark IV Hs managed to thread the needle and pop a Firefly hiding behind the burning wreck of one of my tanks. So far, I've lost four? AFVs to invisible PIATs and have killed one tank, that with tank fire. With all the buildings to hide in, blind spots, fog and my paucity of infantry, it's been a PIAT nightmare.

The other nightmares are infantry and armor. He seems to have the first everywhere, in quantity, and the latter in plenty as well. What really hurts is that there seems to have been no sacrifice in quality to get quantity, whereas I've been fighting the whole battle with what seems like a tiny infantry force supported by rapidly disappearing armor. I think he may have as much as 2:1 infantry superiority over me. I had fairly high hopes for Turn 24, hopes belied by another of his smug emoticons. How I'd love to see a frownie!

My tank near bridge two is eyeball to eyeball with a buttoned tank destroyer; firefights rage across the gulch. I'm attempting to keep

yet another PIAT team pinned down so it can't move or fire. As I recall, we each control one bridge.

Anyone not using several miracles please send them my way! I could really use them.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Treeburst155]

John wrote: "By contrast, my veteran Panzerschreck team hugely missed infantry in scattered trees with every shot it fired."

Are you firing schrecks at infantry or did you mean to write "armor" there? It's been my experience that schrecks aren't too effective against infantry.

Treeburst155 out.