ROW V AARs Posted

[GreenAsJade]

After sending thankful thoughts to Ace Pilot and Cpl Carrot for putting it all together, please feel welcome to send your browser to

The ROW V AAR PAGES

Enjoy.

GaJ.

[Gpig]

oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy

Now how am I supposed to get any work done.

I'm askin' yah!

Gpig

P.S. Thank you for sharing, everybody.

[Flenser]

sniffs the air

Hmm... whats that?

Looks outside

Oh. It's just GreenAsJade's server. On fire.

[ June 30, 2005, 11:41 PM: Message edited by: Flenser ]

[stikkypixie]

[Ace Pilot]

I'd like to tahnk GaJ for going out and getting the hosting space necessary for all of these great AARs.

[GreenAsJade]

Originally posted by Ace Pilot:

I'd like to tahnk GaJ for going out and getting the hosting space necessary for all of these great AARs.

No wukkas. gregories.net needed a new home anyway... now it has one with all the bandwidth I can imagine using for a long time!

GaJ

[Flenser]

Yeah, wait 'till see you the bill.

Some great stuff there. Some of these read more like novels than reports.

[Egbert]

Any place that those of us that were not invlolved, can get a copy of the map and complete OOBs?

[BigDog944]

Bigduke6

Thank you for the work you put into your AARs! Each one a brilliant read! Excellent, excellent work.

[Elmar Bijlsma]

Big Dukes AARs are excellent. I had the honour of reading some previews when our games were done. Great reads each. Especially like the Maleme one he played against me. Not much happened in the battle but it's such a convincing historical account. Definite contender or there is no justice. His enthousiam really shines through in the Moltke one too.

[Flenser]

Pff, screw making it to the finals, I've been immortalized in a BigDuke6 AAR! Damn fine reads, BigDuke6. Well done.

[GreenAsJade]

I am in awe of the BigDuke6 AARs. I dunno if I was every in contention for one of Richie's models, but I'm completely over that idea now!

Well done dude (do you have a life!?).

GaJ

[Elmar Bijlsma]

Sadly, due to unforeseen circumstances I never got round to finishing my AARs. Flenser requested, and now gets, an AAR of our St.Edouards battle. It's entirely from my patchy memory since I deleted the notes and draft I had so forgive lacking/erroneous detail.

A quick glancde at the map and my troops soon made it clear I wasn't going to battle anywhere but at the Sanatorium. Indeed, preeceding the tourney there was a discussion about using half squads and the gamey-ness of them but too defend the sanatoriun effectively I split my squads to have every corner and building defended. HT posted near the buildings to serve as a mobile MG to lend support. The sharpshhoters each got assigned a flank to each side to watch enemy movement.

The one guarding the forest on my right soon had GIs nearly trampling to death as the better part of a company walked by. More and more troops poured into the area and stopped, some quite closeby. thinking that he was finally rumbled my sharpshooter ran from cover. Just in time because as he srarted moving a squad 5 metres away turned. Bullets ripped through the trees on all sides as the sharpshooter pounded through the low branches. Safe! Alerted to the main thrus I shifted my defenses to repel the impending attack. Luckily I had placed my anti personel mines in the trees close to the sanatorium so any attack going through there would get a bloody nose. But I soon saw it wasn't going to be so simple as the sharpshooter on my left observing from the two story house had troops coming straight at him. With troops in the building he hid and vacated it as soon as he dared, infiltrating towards the direction from which the attackers came. The panzerschreck who hads been at the Sanatorium got moved forwards of the Sanatorium in the hopes of encountering little enemies there as so many contacts were already on my flanks. It took up station in trees where it detected tank soundcontacts, one of them bogged. That was just too tempting for me to resist.

Meanwhile the attackers attacked, running straight into mines and some fire from my HT and troops though it was largely thought to be ineffective as the LOS to the attackers was poor. As more enemies piled in and got closer I withdrew the HT for fear of the rifle grenades. Some over confident attackers got mown down after geting a bit too optimistic afterv a token firefight. After that it was just a bloody exchange. My men performed well, hardly flinching but taking casualties at a steady pace. The effect on the enemy was hard totell, though more and more units were detected firing. More troops from the center were moved to my right as casualties mounted. Well timed medium artillery started falling on the sanatorium doing some damage and wreaking havoc with my redeployment plans.

My left most troops got attacked shortly after the ceasing of the artillery, after some light probing earlier. While seemingly more effective in replusing them, with many contacts fired upon only to dissappear and never fire baclk again more and more took their place. Minimal cover was available to the attacker but it was used well as I started receiving fire from unseen forces. Troops got closer and closer to me and casualties of my few troops there started telling on the outgoing fire. The light MG42 performed well from it's position in the light building but the regular infantry+hq were getting hit bad. But the one minefield I placec in the woods on the direct left of the sanatorium proved a bugger to get past for Flensers men. The HT started chipping in but ran into an enemy rifle grenade. The rifle grenade won.

In the center the left sharpshooter started scounting ahead for my Shreck. A Sherman was quickly found and dispatched with a single shot in the flank. Squads came to investigate and everywher my brave tank killers ran there was trouble. The sharpshooter was first to get killed by an advancing Sherman. My shreck team lived longer but finally ran out of places to hide, an attempt to ambush the Sherman failed and after minutes of cat and mouse it drew the short straw and surrender.

As casualties started to mount despite a creditable defense my morale started plummeting, affecting the performance of my troops. Flenser managed to reach the buildings with a Sherman in support after finally reaching the fighting. Against that I had no reply. Being surrounded and fired upon at close range most men surrendered, panicked and died or fought and died as my defences on both sides collapsed. Only a few HQ members, pioniere and the LMG roop on my left survived but could do little as as enemies streamed in. One by one they got discovered and killed.

By then reinforcements had arrived raising the morale of the defnders allowing those survivors to sell theit hides as dear as they could. About the reinforcements: The troops I could use, the Flakpanzer however.... I moved them in positions to approach the Sanatorium but I had to be careful, the enemy had the run of the map for way to long not to be cautious. As the rest of the reinforcements arrived a breathed a sigh of relief. More infantry and a Panther. That's more like it, though at these ranges a Panther would do well to fear the Sherman at any angle. Indeed with the slower turret it would be at a distict disadvantage and I was sure bazookas would be, about defending the Sanatorium. It would be my infantry killing Shermans if I had my way. With troops making good headway towards the Sanatorium I had the Flakpanzer race ahead to see if it could prevent the attackers that just opverran the Sanatorium from advancing past it. It detected troops and I had an awful feeling in my gut. But it thundred down the road and reached safety. Nearly. It got hit by what I thought was a rifle grenade and swerved of the road. With infantry detected up ahead my troops were hastened forward so they would still be where In saw them last. Troops on my right overran a number of defenders easily by boldly crossing the road that seperated them. Luckily there weren't many. On my left there were many, mainly suspected support troops. Most of those had crossed the road hop[ing to cause havoc but infantry fire pinned a few. The Panther then trundeled over the side hedge they were sheltering behind and annihilated them one by one. No contest. it took me a while to be sure though. By now my right approach to the Sanitorium had ben cleared so my Panthewr could safely be postioned there as a HE chucker whil my men dealt with any problems that might arrise.

American troops just recovered from their rough handling on the right of the sanitorium put up a good fight but got largely rolled up. Shermans trundled towards me but couldn't interdict before I shot one building aflame with the Panther. The right most, damaged by the 105mm shelling was rubbled and my troops ran in under cover from the dust. They encountered stiff resistance that whilst proving ineffective was extremely hard to put down. But troops dealing with stragglers on the extreme right cicrlced past, ran towards a Sherman at the back of the building which finally fgell at the hands of a volley of fausts and a grenade bundle. It's crew bailed, got capture but killed as it took fire from the last melee in the riubbled building.

I also advanced left of the Sanatorium though it was a distinctly lesser attack. Early probes proved easily repulsed and destroyed but an advance hugging the road and the trees lining it faired better slowly killing those it encountered beforee getting pinned by MG fire from a clum of trees close by and light fire from the Sanatorium. A Sherman was observed passing on the road behind the Sanatorium. this would prove fatal for the two teams fighting there and I rushed up two other teams with good AT to flank it from the woods I had mined. One squad got mauled in the approach but both reach it. Only one was in a condition to deal with the Sherman as it rounded on my troops. Only one squad was needed. Woosh. AS the clock went ticking I though the dimishing fire from the sanatorium opened a window for an attack on the left. I threw everything I had in the area at it. This proved a mistake as not everyone was in a good shape to attack, thus the attackers arriving piecemeal. And with no troops providing fire support they were mown down in fire more effective then expected. It latere turned out Flensewr was a bit lucky for the defnders to do te damage they did, they tore through my troops faster then the amount of defnders would lead you to believe possible. Ohwell, a bad attack ended in a minor disaster, which is as it should be, it was just over quicker and more decisive then expected. No flag there then.

The flag grab on my right went equaslly badly. The fire I shot afire I mistakenly believed to be uninhabitable, but it turned out to be a minor fire only. Never saw many blazing buildings in CMAK, but I guess the differences between it at the Moltke Buildings should've tipped me off. A badly reduced American helped it to a tie, along with a company HQ that came out of a fold behind the sanatorium to assault it. Straight in the arms of 30 to 40 of Hitlers best men. It quickly was wittled down but it's last man erfused to die or panick. A tied flag. I hoped to tie the left flag with a quick rush of my own but one team got panicked early on, the last panicked in the dying seconds, leaving it in American hands. I was quite disgusted with the tied flag though, it was quite clearly in my hands nd not in the hands of a solitary HQ man standing in open terrain staring at a platoons worth of he best troops the Reich has to offer.

Scoring and analysis:

I don't hate night battles. I loathe them, I truely do. But this one was good. Good pacing and a neat and well timed counter attack, very well done, a right hoot. Big, big thumbs up.

But a few critisisms as to how it played out. Fight as you might, it's very hard indeed to compensate for losing elite troops. Yes, mine hardly ever got surpressed but at the ranges combat took place you get killed as much as surpressed so you are hard pressed to make up for losses. Furthermore, as global morale started plummeting in response to the designed eliminating of the defenders they grew ever more ready to surrender and perform badly. It might have been better to enter the reinforcments earlier to boost morale but give them more terrain to travel across thus keeping the arrival time into action approximatly the same.

I scored 42 against Flensers 52. A tie aagainst me isn't too bad but since I had the best of him in much of the battle and had for all intents and purposes defeated him at the moment of the end. So the scoring didn't quite folow how the battle seemed to go. Oh, and wtf is with that Wirbelwind?

**will edit later for typos and brainfarts, much too late now**

[ July 01, 2005, 05:50 PM: Message edited by: Elmar Bijlsma ]

[Flenser]

That about sums it up. You left out the bit where my routed squad took a tour of the entire complex and triggered a firefight I was rather not interesting in having.

The final score was 52-48, btw.

Some notes:

I didn't think the 105 barrage was doing much but making noise. I guess you can't go wrong dumping 100 HE shells on a spot where the enemy has to be.

Those minefields were indeed murder. Well placed.

Those roaming bands of Sherman torching @#@!ers...really put a crimp in my plans.

Thanks for posting that, Elmar. If anyone wants to see exactly what not to do, and all the things that can go wrong in a fight like this, you can find my AAR on the aforementioned site.

[GreenAsJade]

Elmar: I PDFed and posted your AAR at the AAR pages.

FWIW, it took about 5 minutes to do: anyone writing more AARs is welome to send them to me and they'll be duly published. If you send me PDF, that would be great. If you just send me whatever you have that's fine too.

GaJ.

(note: Flenser's entry still says "opponent's AAR not present" due to a typo on my part... will be fixed in due course).

[ July 01, 2005, 07:34 PM: Message edited by: GreenAsJade ]

[Bigduke6]

Guys,

Thanks for the kind words. I hadn't planned to write up such big AARs, actually. I just started making notes after every turn, and pretty quickly I figured out it was easier to type them into the computer than to scribble them on paper. It didn't take long, maybe 2 or 3 minutes for each turn. So we're talking 10-15 minutes daily to do the upkeep on my ROW notes, assuming every one returned my turns on time.

A paragraph or so times 20-30 turns makes for an awful lot of detail, and by AAR time all I did, really, was string together the notes. I actually had to cut down Moltke and Highlanders, I had written so much.

On the pictures that sort of "grew in the telling." I messed around with photoshop first just to lighten up the screenies to make them worth looking at, and then once I figured out how to do that I started looking for pretty screenies, and that led to more screenies. The comic strip idea obviosly was stolen from that other AAR on the web, Knifefight somewhere, I forget the exact name.

But without such great scenarios, and opponents, the AARs would have been worthless. Also I ought to apologize here to mPisi, I tried some wierd tactics (attack as Germans, yes really) at St. Eduards, got my head handed to me, and I am still so embaressed I can't bring myself to do the AAR. Autosurrender, it wasn't pretty.

Flenser especially gave me one roller coaster of a fight. I am still mad about my blind MKIV platoon.

And Redrobin deserves Good Sport of the Year for taking over as Germans in Moltke and spending 25 turns in the face of the one thing I am good at in CM, a deliberate Soviet assault.