Musings..my latest scenerio...scenerio #28

[athlete]

2000 pt Allied Attack scenerio. Can't remember the date...might be summer 43? Modest hills, Large Map, daylight, village

I chose from memory...I'm at work

2x81mm Arty Spotters, radio

1xCaptured S35 just cuz I wanted to try it

3x75mm Paks

4x50mm Paks not sure the number is right..

1xCompany Light inf with 50mm Mortars and

3xMG34 HMG

3x250/1 HTs

2xSharpshooters

Trenches for everyone

Looking at the map, I choose to defend a group of flags in the south, good reverse slopes, and away from the town.

Set the Somua up north mainly for recce.

Sent the snipers up the N and S flanks for recce.

Set the Platoons up on the RSlopes in front of the flags, fairly tight...on sort of mid-map to protect against a flanking maneuver from the N, one on the N side of the Flags sort of just se of town, one on the s side of the flags.

When I set up my guns, I put them in trees in keyhole-type positions looking toward the east from more or less in front of my flags.

I also gave the North platoon a pair of guns 'just in case'.

Long story short, contact was made first by my snipers. Using snipers for recce is a great tool I find. The nme started by moving the bulk of his infantry overland from the east, mid map making good use of cover and dead ground, but my snipers would see them sporatically darting from point to point. They picked up a KV tank moving slowly up behind the inf, but it never entered a point from which my guns could engage.

I was patient; the strategy was to try and maintain fire discipline until the enemy entered the optimal field of fire on the Rslopes, force him to bring his armour up to support, and engage the armour with guns when it exposed itself. The contingency plan in case the enemy flanked to the north was that I had set up my 75mm guns in such a position that they could be scooped up quickly by the three HTs which were close by, and oriented so that they could reversed to and grab the guns in one turn. i.e the rear of the truck was pointed toward the gun in a straight line, and the trucks were < 30 yds away in cover.

As the scenerio developed, a group of armour-supported APCs were spotted moving across the extreme north of the map. My sniper spotted them. Additionally, the large mass of inf moving across the middle of the map broke up into three elements; a large group to the north, a med size one through the middle, and one platoon) to the south, toward my guns. This last group was a concern as I had utterly failed to provide my guns with any kind of anti-inf defense. Ooops.

At this point, I reflected on my recent readings in these forums about that Patton adage regarding, "Grab him by the nuts and kick him in the a55" or something like that. I'm thinking..."he's going to come up the gut and engage me, probe south, and while the mid- and southern forces tie me up, he's going to bring the hammer down from the north".

Too bad too. Had he gone the other way...ah well.

So now the predicament is, the southern group of inf are closing on the guns that are unprotected started cursing myself for that, and now I don't have enough A.T. assets in the north to repell a concentrated armour move. I don't really want to uproot my defenders and give up my foxholes and trenches, but if I don't reinforce the north before I'm engaged in the south, I'll be stuck.

I send a HT to pick up a 75mm from the middle of the map, and drop it off to cover my trench line there...this gives me 2x50mm and a 75mm there, with a platoon of inf with a 50mm mortar in trenches...then I take those inf and move them north a bit so I can try and stall the northern advance a bit. Throw some rounds that way and make them more cautious. I fully intend to withdraw back to the trenchline after first contact.

I move one of the remaining HTs into cover in front of the guns to try and stall the inf probe there. I figure it should be able to hold off the inf long enough for me to reposition the guns or get the southern platoon into position to defend the guns. Further, I figure if an nme tank is moved up to take out the HT, he'll be staring into the face of a pile of guns. Further, one of my 81mm spotters lobs some rounds in front of the advance just to let them know that I see them...maybe this will buy me some time. I also begrudgingly start taking the inf on the south flank out of their trenches sigh and start moving them slightly north to the guns. Already I'm realizing that this mistake will go down as one of a couple that will lose this scenerio for me.

I start moving the S35 from the northern recce position to support the 'mid-map' troops I just sent on a stalling mission. Figure he can't go toe to toe with T34s/KVs anyway...might as well provide the inf with some HE and MG support. Plus my sniper on that flank is providing better intel anyway.

The HT intended to protect the guns engages some infantry...not a huge amount, maybe two squads. As luck would have it, one of them as an ATR. It takes a couple of turns, and a lot of plinking, but finally one penetrates and the HT is dead. DOH!

The force sent to stall the middle advance engages a platoon+ sized element. The HMG does most of the work, and gets them to duck for a few turns. The tank was a shade late to the party, and I'm already in mid-withdrawl when he shows up. The HMG stayed behind to cover the withdrawl, but as the forces against him build, he panics and bails. The S35 moves up, and makes em duck, but my spidey-sense is already going off that I have an unsupported tank facing >a platoon of inf. Time to back up.

Meanwhile, the nme mid-force appears to have split on either side of the e/w road, with the heavier element on the north. This is good because that one reinforced platoon I had guarding the middle advance is right in their path, in trenches hiding on a rslope.

So that's where I am. My northern flank defense is up to two 50mm Paks and a 75mm Pak, with a platoon of inf w 50mm mortar in trenches on a reverse slope. There is also a HT handy and an 81mm spotter to support them.

The south is too gun-heavy, and the inf are out of position to help, I'm down one HT, and I'm sure those nme inf are on the march again, or soon will be. It's a race. I doubt I can move the guns now, but I'm going to explore this a bit.

Also, it's clear that there is one KV mid map, squirming up to support the mid-map element, and prob two more with a T34 at least up north moving to come from the N flank with mechanized inf.

This is how I expect things to work out.

The N Platoon is prob in for a helluva scrap. Good odds down only about 2:1 initially being dug in with indirect fire support and that HT. If their ammo holds up, it's going to be a tough nut to crack. I expect it to get wiped out, but make a mess in the process. Hopefully there is enough AT firepower to stave off the supporting armour/APCs.

The guns in the south are in trouble. I think they are going to get over-run. I don't think my inf will get there in time to prevent it, and once those positions are id'd I expect mortars to pound them to dust. I MIGHT be able to get a couple out with the only avail HT, but I'm skeptical.

The platoon in the middle will probably decimate the platoon+inf headed their way. The nme really has no way to support that move indirectly or directly, and there isn't really any way to go around it.

What I might do is dump smoke on the gun positions and try and get the two guns that are right in the path of the nme inf out w the HT, move them to the N flank. Then I'd try and withdraw the enroute, supporting inf to the rslope position and engage that probe. If it goes well, try and advance them to support the N flank.

Stay tuned.

[Wally's World]

A good read, athlete.

But a question, what are those "armour-supported APCs" that you saw moving at the extreme north end of the map?

[athlete]

Hmmm...trying to remember now...might have been an M5...Thing is, from memory I have sort of an M113-looking thing in my head, not a HT...

[Sabot3]

Does your opponent ever read these Forums? If he does, it might not be a great idea going into this level of detail before the battle is over. It's sort of like letting him look over your shoulder while you play!

I'd get those ATG's covered by some infantry as soon as possible and try to seperate any infantry he is carrying on his tanks from those tanks. Don't let them support each other!

That's a bit of advice from a 29 year 10 month retiree from the Canadian Army who didn't go to RMC, did enjoy his time at the School and believes that tactics will beat the calculator time after time. Also don't you have better things to do at work than give me, I mean your opponent your plan

I still can't believe that you keep track of how many times you have been beaten

[athlete]

Shiza! I didn't know he read these forums. Bastage. :eek:

I guess we're calling this one a mulligan.

Coulda sworn he said he went to Military College...actually, there are two aren't there...did you go to the other one? RMC and....sh!t, seems to me it was a french school. Ah well.

Also, I haven't yet figured out what fricken calculator ur talking about. Where in this post did I talk about percentages etc...

29 years? Back then, Centurian was a rank, not a tank right? (I stole that).

So, since I'm nixxing continuation of this scenerio, tell me your version of events thus far. THAT would be interesting reading.

[ June 03, 2005, 07:07 AM: Message edited by: athlete ]

[Sabot3]

Remind me to never share a secret with you. Your operational security sucks

People can't see the map so I won't bore them with a lenghty description. The South and middle of the map has most of the flags and a lot of hills. It is the logical place to concentrate the defence. The North is open with scattered woods.

My plan was fairly simple. I bought a Motorized rifle battalion which came with its own 82mm mortar Forward Observing Officer (FOO). I also bought 2 x 82mm FOO, 2 x 120mm FOO, 2 platoons of KV1 and 4 platoons of T34. Plan was to fix the centre of the map with 1 x inf company and 1 x company (-) of inf, the KV's which are slow and 3 x 82mm mortar FOO's. Probe the high ground to the South with a platoon to see what was there and grab a flag on the forward slope which I could easily defend. If something opened up from the Southern hills, pummel it with indirect fire.

When I had the centre fixed, discovered the location of the bulk of his force, I would bring in the 4 platoons of T34 carrying a company of SMG inf and roll up the defence from North to South. I had a small recon force in the North (1 squad, 1 Company HQ and a 120mm FOO) to check out the Northern approach for the T34s.

The infantry advance in the centre went far better than expected with virtually no forward defence. Same in the South. Started to pick up ATG's in the Centre, so I decided to commit the T34's in the North early so the centre group of inf and KV's didn't have to fight alone for too long. Thats where we were at before the OPFOR plan was delivered into my lap. Yes loose lips do sink ships.

I expected to encounter some panzers and at least a couple of combat outposts forward; I was happy to encounter neither. When the forward infantry started to identify and kill ATGs, I was happy, less work for the arty. Its too early to tell how well the attack plan would have worked but it was going well up to this point.

My perspective on the scenario so far.