**** ROW IV (part 5) ***

[walpurgis nacht]

Originally posted by GreenAsJade:

I imagine Walpurgis Night AAR will really open some eyes and cause some slapping of fros. "Why didn't I think of that?!".

GaJ.

Well don’t expect anything special from my AARs. As with the first round of battles, I’m simply fulfilling the requirement to get a “pass”. It’s too complicated to explain all of the detail with words. Screen shots might help a bit, but I’m clueless with computers and I simply cannot imagine trying to really explain all the micro-detail (the things that really matter), with anything less than a short novel for each scenario. So I stick to general strategic philosophy in the AARs.

I’m receiving random emails from all over asking questions about gameplay in these scenarios, and to see various turns for analysis. Combined with the posts above it seems there is a lot of interest, so I can highlight a few important considerations here.

*** Wolf *** (Allied)

Someone mentioned they were surprised so many allied players did well. I too, am surprised. Those 2 lbrs are no match for the kraut pzIIIs and IVs. So you really had to outplay the Axis attacker, and get a little lucky.

The key to this one was knowing the desert, and especially dust and how it works. “Very dry” + “still” is the ultimate in cloudy LOS in the desert, as I’m sure you all noticed.

I knew I would be facing pzIIIs and IVs, simply from the history of the battle. The tigers were deployed elsewhere, to fight the Americans at this time (thankfully). I ran a long series of tests with these tanks vs mine, in the specific desert conditions of this scenario before hand in preparation.

If you were using “hunt” you probably didn’t do very well. I did not use this movement command for any reason. “fast” move only. With “hunt”, you stop when you achieve LOS to an enemy tank, and setup your aim to fire. If you are not rotated EXACTLY forward relative to the enemy tank position, you fire 1 shot, then rotate. Rotating kicks up dust and breaks your LOS, so you start moving again after every shot. Now consider that when the enemy tank you're targeting realizes he's being targeted, he begins to rotate, kicking up dust, and blocking your LOS . . . activating your "hunt" command as well. So, you don't have the greatest chance to even get 1 shot off to begin with. This makes coordinating flanking maneuvers virtually impossible, not to mention it resets your to hit % as if it were the first shot, every time. The Axis, with their superior armor quality, and one hit one kill policy of their 50mm/75mm guns, can afford this kind of piecemeal fighting . . .but not the Brits.

There is one other key tactical “trick” I can pass along that deals with the dust issue. I always tried to work my armor maneuvers such that, they would arrive facing precisely forward (relative to enemy tank position). In other words, if I rushed a few tanks to attack his flank in coordination with a frontal attack, I would not just give them long flanking movement orders, let them arrive, turn and fight. I gave them the long flanking movement orders, and simply added one extra move every time . . .a short 3-5 meters “fast” move in the exact direction of the enemy tank. Make sense? It’s tough to describe. You have to be really carefully how you set the endpoints for your armor groupings when they move, so that none have their LOS blocked at that critical moment of arrival, by the other's dust trails.

Between that and not getting hung up on stopping my tanks to fire (instead firing at super close range, on the move), I more or less ran circles around the attacker. I think I only lost 1 tank, and much to my frustration I managed to immobilize another by clipping my own mines! Lucky for me the attacker generally sat still with his armor, giving me the edge. I also have to say I got pretty lucky in addition to all of this. I’ve been playing CM with Londoner for years, and he is a damn good opponent.

*** Honor *** (Axis)

When I saw this map/setup/conditions I was completely annoyed. No chance for Axis on this one against a solid attacker. Give me the Allies, take away all of my armor, and I’d still run the Axis off the map.

In light of what appeared a hopeless situation to me, I took some hard risks that had an incredible payoff. The general strategy was to lock down my right flank, and actually attack him on my left flank. And so, I used the roadblocks, mines, and wire on the right flank. Scattered trees + wire acts as a roadblock, even to fully tracked vehicles like tanks, in CMAK (this was not the case in BB). So I was able to construct one long, continuous roadblock, which, in concert with the mines, comfortably locked out all of his armor on my right flank. This allowed me to concentrate all of my armor on the left flank, where I was attacking.

Since on my right flank there was only one decent position to setup a defense line (along the road), my strategy there was to hold that line stonewall for as long as absolutely possible. Thus my best troops, in the highest concentration, were there. Also all of my trps went on this flank, since there wasn’t going to be any armor around to support the troops. The attacker hit this flank hard (5 sherms, a few scout cars, 6-7 + platoons of infantry), but walked right into my trps, which ripped him apart. His scouting process was far too concentrated, and he paid a heavy toll for that. Schreks got 2 of his sherms, 2 of my tank hunters which got behind his lines and came around behind him got another 2 sherms, and the last died from a 75mm IG HC round. He never once got any HE on my boys from those sherms. Arty took out his scout cars, and caused massive casualties (I used every drop of arty HE on this flank). Even after all of that, my right flank line finally broke down towards the very end of the game from his overwhelming infantry numbers. Lucky me not in time to take any flags.

His main thrust, where he committed a modest force at the start, and from what I can tell all of his reserves (basically every other AVF he had, outside the 5 sherms + 2 scout cars he hit my right flank with ), came just left of center. Not sure why he chose this path. I can’t think of any time in any CM game I’ve played, where attacking up the middle was a good idea (at least until the flanks are secure . . .which doesn’t make “the center”, the center anymore anyway).

I spent the first 20 turns rushing units left to expand my line across the map, and then prodding forward in “attack” mode. I had all of my armor rush this flank as well, in support, along with a few towed AT guns, most of my support MGs, and my mortars. Every defender should have expanded out on the left flank. If not in force then just scouts to get a set of “eyes” over there. You don’t want him to get around that flank, without at least knowing and having a contingency plan to deal with it. If I were attacking, that flank is where I would have intuitively chosen to push the hardest.

I thought I should start in attack mode on this flank first, to keep him from picking up any easy ground. Then use a fallback defense to soak up his superior numbers. He in essence was hitting my weaker side the hardest, but I had virtually all of my armor concentrated there to make up for it.

So it all came down to the armor war. Since he was foolishly pushing up the center I had all kinds of flanking fire opportunities. The Jpanzer was a key tool. This fellow, hull down, is practically invulnerable from the front, even from the American 76mm. 76mm tungsten can pierce it theoretically, but I’m not sure if he had any, and the chance to penetrate is extremely low regardless. In AK, shell size matters a great deal more than in BB, so even if tungsten penetrates it doesn’t have the punching power to knock out a tank nearly as well as the regular 76mm AP shell. As a side note in “wolf”, this is why the 2lber sucks so bad vs the pzIIIs and IVs. The penetration value is sufficient to penetrate repeatedly, but due to the small shell size, the panzers shrug off the majority of penetrations.

Anyway, the attacker’s armor was decimated. Jpanzer lead a few stugs attacking/defending from the road. Most of my other armor was off by the wheatfield moving in for flank shots on the road. I can’t explain every armor kill and how, but there are a few little things to mention.

M10s have one big weakness . . . the open top. They are vulnerable to arty and on-board mortars. I took out a few with mortars.

The AT guns I towed out on my left flank got multiple kills on different turns, save one which was randomly hit with arty before it fired. I was shocked by this. It’s so easy to kill discovered AT guns when LOS is restricted to 200 meters. You simply move your armor exactly 201 meters away from it and area target HE. You can also destroy bunkers (in AK) this way. The splash from the HE will cause a random casualty in the bunker, and once you cause 3 casualties the bunker crew bails (takes time and a healthy supply of HE). Lucky for me Larsen didn’t seem to know this.

Other than that the only thing to say is that it’s a mistake for the defender to sit still too long with your armor in a situation like this. A good allied attacker can better setup the necessary flanking maneuvers if you just sit still. I kept everyone moving and it worked like a charm. By the time Larsen quit about halfway through the game (very lame), the majority of his armor was already down, and I had not lost a single tank. When Boris Balaban picked up the attack in his place, he did the right thing and reorganized his armor to flank me. I lost a few tanks in the final armor duels but it was too little too late. I had already established a decisive edge in numbers. Boris did a great job with what he had left though.

What is most revealing about the Allied advantage in this scenario is that, even though I was able to effectively use virtually every HE shell the Axis had (every tank shell, arty barrage, AT gun HE, pillbox HE, and on-board mortars), things were still just on the edge of total collapse for my defense as the final turns wound down.

*** Methode *** (Axis)

I abandoned the forward flag from the start except for one sharpshooter. He snuck down into the brush right along the water. . . .an extremely unlikely spot for the attacker to scout, giving me an almost perfect LOS into his backfield (I saw every move he made back there). If you check the terrain in that area very carefully, you will notice that there are tiny little areas where the different terrain patches connect (no little open ground gaps in between). That allows for a unit as stealthy as a sharpshooter to sneak around unnoticed, almost at will, so long as enemy units are not too close. So, as the game was nearing the end, my sharpy snuck back up toward the flag with the intention to “tie” it, without the attacker even knowing (using sharpy stealth, and sneaking him just close enough to tie it). Turns out, since I won the armor war, I timed a move with my Jpanther to rush down the road and get within the flag radius the very last few seconds of the game (timed to the very last seconds, so any infantry he had there wouldn’t even have time to turn, much less toss a grenade). So I ended up taking this flag instead of just the tie (armor trumps infantry, depending on the infantry numbers at the flag, in terms of “control”). I did this in “honor” also . . .taking back a few of the forward flags, on the last seconds of the game. Gamey as hell but I was playing to win.

Also, I could see this attack included assault boats from the very start. With only 1 obvious, wired + mined route for the attacker it was not difficult to deduce that. I used a split squad to sneak down to his assault boats after he was finished with them (on the coast), and took out all 8 of them. Again kind of gamey but they count as vehicle kills in terms of points.

My Jpanther took out 2 of his sherms from the default position. 3 Sherms made it across the bridge. He then went on to attempt to coordinate a flanking attack on my Jpanther with those remaining Sherms. He was doing it right, so I had to be aggressive with the Jpanther . . .using the road to rush forward into positions to catch his remaining tanks, 1 at a time. I caught 2 of his remaining Sherms this way. My panzerschrek took out the 3rd.

The attacker pushed right up the middle “vines” patch with his infantry. He bunched everyone up and rushed this central area (again, bad idea to attack the center without securing flanks). I knew he was in the trees above the "vines" patch there, but I did not suspect for one moment he would push them right down the middle, especially with the speed and concentration of troops he chose. I had MG flanking fire from multiple directions in place working overwatch of this area. Unlike rifles and smgs, MGs have a 15-20m diameter area of effect, so when the attacker bunched up his troops on the rush, he multiplied the effect of my firepower dramatically . . . and since he was only in “vines” terrain it dropped all of his squads pretty much instantly. Within a few turns I had moved enough firepower into position to finish him off in this bottleneck. With his armor down, this more or less ended the game.

I hope this was helpful,

WN

[ October 14, 2004, 12:08 AM: Message edited by: Walpurgis Nacht ]

[GreenAsJade]

WN - it was great!!

Well done. It proves this game is not about what you've got, it's about how you use it...

GaJ.

[AC]

Superb tactics WN. Never could have come up with something like that in Wolf...

[Melnibone]

WN - thanks for your input.

"Scattered trees + wire acts as a roadblock, even to fully tracked vehicles like tanks, in CMAK (this was not the case in BB). "

I never knew that....doh!

[Holien]

Morning Gents.

I just want to thank WN for his explanations and bloody useful hints. It just goes to show that if you know what you are doing you can skew things to your advantage even if everything is against you.

I got a bloody nose on Wolf and I now know how dust reacts and how best to counter act it.

Thanks WN.

As for AAR's so far I have had a pretty poor number for the finals.

WN has sent all three and so has Heavy Drop.

Mick Oz has sent in two and that is all I have so far.

If your name is not mentioned and you have AAR's to send please do so by the end of play on Sunday.

I will check my mail on Monday morning and if I don't have it then then I will assume that you will not be sending an AAR in.

I do realise what enormous effort it takes to put it down in words and especially if you have no chance of getting the wine. If you can spare the community the time, please do even at a later date.

I know WN opponents might be pretty sore after taking a beating from him, Can I make a special plea to them to see if they can jot down some views from the other side of the fence. These would then help players see what happened and help explain things further.

Cheers

H

[Mick_Oz]

Originally posted by Holien:

Morning Gents.

I just want to thank WN for his explanations and bloody useful hints. It just goes to show that if you know what you are doing you can skew things to your advantage even if everything is against you.

I got a bloody nose on Wolf and I now know how dust reacts and how best to counter act it.

Thanks WN.

As for AAR's so far I have had a pretty poor number for the finals.

WN has sent all three and so has Heavy Drop.

Mick Oz has sent in two and that is all I have so far.

If your name is not mentioned and you have AAR's to send please do so by the end of play on Sunday.

I will check my mail on Monday morning and if I don't have it then then I will assume that you will not be sending an AAR in.

I do realise what enormous effort it takes to put it down in words and especially if you have no chance of getting the wine. If you can spare the community the time, please do even at a later date.

I know WN opponents might be pretty sore after taking a beating from him, Can I make a special plea to them to see if they can jot down some views from the other side of the fence. These would then help players see what happened and help explain things further.

Cheers

H

[Mick_Oz]

Originally posted by Mick_Oz:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Holien:

Morning Gents.

I just want to thank WN for his explanations and bloody useful hints. It just goes to show that if you know what you are doing you can skew things to your advantage even if everything is against you.

I got a bloody nose on Wolf and I now know how dust reacts and how best to counter act it.

Thanks WN.

As for AAR's so far I have had a pretty poor number for the finals.

WN has sent all three and so has Heavy Drop.

Mick Oz has sent in two and that is all I have so far.

If your name is not mentioned and you have AAR's to send please do so by the end of play on Sunday.

I will check my mail on Monday morning and if I don't have it then then I will assume that you will not be sending an AAR in.

I do realise what enormous effort it takes to put it down in words and especially if you have no chance of getting the wine. If you can spare the community the time, please do even at a later date.

I know WN opponents might be pretty sore after taking a beating from him, Can I make a special plea to them to see if they can jot down some views from the other side of the fence. These would then help players see what happened and help explain things further.

Cheers

H

</font>

[Mick_Oz]

Sorry about the double post...

[Holien]

Good Morning Gents.

So far I have full point AAR's from the following:-

Walpurgis Nacht x 3

Mick Oz x3

mPisi x3

Capt T x3

Ankulin x1

Heavy Drop x3

If you intend to do an AAR please just drop me a quick e-mail today. If not the cut off will be when I wake up on Monday morning and post on here what AAR's I have received.

KF can then use that information to post the winners of the wine.

We will then have the top five AAR's (In Our Opinion) for you to judge by Sunday if not sooner.

These will be bundled into a single zip and five individual zips on my web site. (I will give directions to it when I have posted them.)

To vote you must meet the following criteria: -

1. Have been involved in some way with the Tourney.

2. List in order of preference the AAR's. I.e. 1 being best to 5 not quite as good.

3. You send me an E-mail stating your involvement and clearly listing from 1 to 5 the scenarios.

4. This to be done by a set date yet to be decided, most probably one week after I post the files.

All votes are strictly secret and will not be disclosed by me or the assesor (KF) to anyone else. I.e. I will tally the votes and get KF to check my logic and it will be only me and him that know how you voted.

I hope that makes sense and as ever E-mail me if you have any questions.

Cheers

H

EDITED. I have just checked what we originally said and the AAR deadline for the Wine was yesterday so technically what we have above is it. However for the AAR prize I will take updated AAR's until 1st thing Monday morning. KF will be along shortly.....

Sorry for the confusion, not enough coffee drunk this Sunday morning.

[ October 17, 2004, 03:06 AM: Message edited by: Holien ]

[AC]

Would be possible to have a day or two more for the AARs... busy with school/work :/

[Kingfish]

A day more, and that is it my friend(s).

Today was supposed to have been the day, but real life dropped the hammer on me here, so you all get a one day extension. Now, if by this time tomorrow you do not have your AARs in....oh well.

[Holien]

Good morning gents.

The final list of AAR's sent in is as follows: -

Walpurgis Nacht x 3

Mick Oz x3

mPisi x3

Capt T x3

Ankulin x2 (Missing Wolf)

Heavy Drop x3

Over to KF later today.

I have been asked what the AAR prize is and for those who don't know it is a Years Subscription to After The Battle Magazine. See the web site below: -

http://www.afterthebattle.com/ab-con1.html

This page lists all the previous editions and the material they have covered. If you have never seen a copy and want to get a feel for how a battle looked then and now it is a great publication.

As for the votes I will be using PR (Proportional Representation) to count them. Do a google search if you don't know what that is.

Cheers

H

[Kingfish]

Good evening gents.

It is time to announce our winners. As I explained to the 12 finalists by e-mail, I used the modified Nabla scoring system to calculate the final scores. This is the same procedure I used to finish up ROW III.

First, lets post some scores. These are the total score (3 scenario scores added together):

mPisi / 0.07

Heavy Drop / 2.03

Deadly 88 / 1.34

Enoch / -3.44

Walpurgis Night / 6.62

The Capt / -3.35

Boris / -2.35

Londoner / -0.92

Bryce Baker / -1.51

Mick OZ / 0.15

Melnibone / 0.35

Capt T / -1.05

As you can see, Walpurgis night has the highest score with 6.62(not bad). The AAR bonus is 4% of that (.2648 or .26 rounded down). Multiply the bonus by the number of AARs each player submitted (see Holien's post above), then add it to the total scores gives us the final scores (and our 3 winners):

mPisi / 0.07 + .78 = 0.85

Heavy Drop / 2.03 + .78 = 2.81 (winner of section 1)

Deadly 88 / 1.34 + 0 = 1.34

Enoch / -3.44 + 0 = -3.44

Walpurgis Night / 6.62 + .78 = 7.40 (winner of section 2)

The Capt / -3.35 + 0 = -3.35

Boris / -2.35 + 0 = -2.35

Londoner / -0.92 + 0 = -0.92

Bryce Baker / -1.51 + 0 = -1.51

Mick OZ / 0.15 + .78 = 0.93

Melnibone / 0.35 + 0 = 0.35

Capt T / 1.01 + .78 = 1.79 (winner of section 3)

Congratulations to Heavy Drop, Walpurgis Night and Capt T, winners of the ROW IV tournament

Edit: corrected score for section 3

[ October 19, 2004, 03:37 AM: Message edited by: Kingfish ]

[Richie]

Well Done Fella's,

Top Work!!!

[GreenAsJade]

I thought that there was going to be one winner in the end. Is that Walpurgis?

[Melnibone]

Bryce Baker / -1.51

Mick OZ / 0.15

Melnibone / 0.35

Capt T / -1.05

These look wrong and do not add up to 0. Capt T looked like the winner to me from the previously listed scores - his numbers here look wrong.

[Kingfish]

DOH!!!

How %$#^! embarrasing is this? I screwed up on the final calculations. Instead of using Capt T's score, I accidently typed in The Capt's (section 2) score. On the spreadsheet they are next to each other in Proof of Honor.

Anyway, here is the corrected score for section 3:

Bryce Baker / -1.51 + 0 = -1.51

Mick OZ / 0.15 + .78 = 0.93

Melnibone / 0.35 + 0 = 0.35

Capt T / 1.01 + .78 = 1.79 winner of section 3

My apologies for the error, and thanks to all who brought it to my attention.

[Melnibone]

Have the authors of Methode and Wolf been revealed yet? Just interested to know. Thanks to all of the designers throughout for some memorable games.

My personal high point - taking out the JagdPanther in Methode with a grenade - happy days

[Mick_Oz]

Originally posted by Kingfish:

DOH!!!

How %$#^! embarrasing is this? I screwed up on the final calculations. Instead of using Capt T's score, I accidently typed in The Capt's (section 2) score. On the spreadsheet they are next to each other in Proof of Honor.

Anyway, here is the corrected score for section 3:

Bryce Baker / -1.51 + 0 = -1.51

Mick OZ / 0.15 + .78 = 0.93

Melnibone / 0.35 + 0 = 0.35

Capt T / 1.01 + .78 = 1.79 winner of section 3

My apologies for the error, and thanks to all who brought it to my attention.

[Mick_Oz]

Originally posted by Kingfish:

DOH!!!

How %$#^! embarrasing is this? I screwed up on the final calculations. Instead of using Capt T's score, I accidently typed in The Capt's (section 2) score. On the spreadsheet they are next to each other in Proof of Honor.

Anyway, here is the corrected score for section 3:

Bryce Baker / -1.51 + 0 = -1.51

Mick OZ / 0.15 + .78 = 0.93

Melnibone / 0.35 + 0 = 0.35

Capt T / 1.01 + .78 = 1.79 winner of section 3

My apologies for the error, and thanks to all who brought it to my attention.

--

Ah well, fleeting glory, even if mistaken, was great while it lasted. Congrats to Capt T and the other winners... and sorry (once more) for the double post... :eek:

[Kingfish]

Richie designed Methode Champenois, I designed Wolf in Sheep's clothing and Jwxspoon designed Proof of Honor.

[Holien]

Hi,

Congratulations to all the players and the winners of the wine.

Just a quick heads up for the players.

Watch this space for some news on how you will be able to vote for your favourite scenario.

I am at work at the moment and will be able to post a detailed message later today.

So pop back in tonight / Wednesday for more information.

H

[WineCape]

Hello,

Congrats to the winners of ROW IV as well as all those participants that have stuck it sportingly to their opponents one way or another!

Capt T, Heavy Drop and WN please send me your delivery details (and contact numbers) so that I can arrange their wine preferences as well as shipment details. (email in profile)

I believe I've already send to the scenario designers the invitation for a "wine thank you" via email. Let me know who will co-ordinate the goodies state side. BTW, do the designers live all in the USA?

Kingfish, I need *relatives* living outside your damn Florida everdry state...

Sincerely,

Charl Theron

"It may affront the military-minded person to suggest a regime that does not maintain any military secrets." - Albert Einstein

[ October 19, 2004, 09:44 AM: Message edited by: WineCape ]

[Spanish Bombs]

Congratulations to the winners. I hope and trust that it was as fun for the players as the first ROWs were for me.

Perhaps we need to institute a new rule for future tournamets about players with similar handles in the finals?

[Holien]

AAR Prize Update

Right after much deliberation and soul searching we have duly arrived at the following list of AAR's to be eligable for the final vote.

They can be found at the following web site : -

http://www.9woodford.clara.net/

The finalists are (In No Order) :

ankulin "Methode Champenois"

Steve McClaire "Squeezing The Melon"

Tabpub "South of Vevi"

Londoner "South of Vevi"

John Kettler "Retreat from Metemma"

Please Send Votes to my e-mail address:-

Holien AT 9Woodford DOT Clara DOT co DOT uk

Remember to Say Who You Are, What link you have with the tourney and list the authors from 1 to 5 with 1 being the one you want to have the Prize.

Voting Finishes when I wake up on Sunday 31st and collect my mails in the morning. I will then post the result as soon as possible after then.

How you choose is beyond me as it has been a bugger to get it down to five.

Good Reading and send me your vote as soon as you can. The prize for these guys is a years subscription to After The Battle, donated by the editor of the magazine. Well worth having and worth voting for.

Last Bunch Of AAR's

The Finalist AAR's are also posted at the same web site so read how Mick Oz was pipped at the post by Capt T. Or how Heavy Drop and Walpugris Night managed to wipe out their opponents.

Sorry I have limited Web space and the 1st round AAR's will have to be done by WWB.

Cheers

H