Operation "Villers-Bocage"

[John Kelly]

This operation is a tankers delight. I played as the German and reminisced about the days when miniatures ruled the wargamer's heart and box wars were a common Saturday afternoon occurrence. As the German player, I was astounded with the number of tanks and half-tracks available. I just couldn't imagine how the British would be able to stop me with 7 Tigers and 7 PzIV's. Then I got reinforcements...more Tigers and MkIV's. Well, try 50 British tanks and air power to boot. This scenario was incredible. I squeaked by with a tactical victory and only one MkIV remaining out of my proud division, but from a pleasure perspective, it was a 10 on the richter scale. If you've played it, tell me what you think. Prohst, Herr John Kelly

[Henri]

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

T If you've played it, tell me what you think. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I posted a long multi-part AAR as the British with this scenario on the Usenet war-historical forum. If you can't find them, i can mail them to you.A very exciting scenario, but it would be a lot easier if there were easier commands to follow roads.

Henri

[GriffinCheng+]

Heri,

I just have to say how much I appreciate your excellent AAR and I "rip" your original AAR and some of the following discussions from USENet via Deja.com. If you don't mind, may I can post it here.

Griffin sneaking @ work

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"+" is just the beginning. Expect to see "GriffinCheng76", "GriffinCheng(105)" or "GriffinChengA3E8" more should Forum problems occur again

[Henri]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by GriffinCheng+:

Heri,

I just have to say how much I appreciate your excellent AAR and I "rip" your original AAR and some of the following discussions from USENet via Deja.com. If you don't mind, may I can post it here.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

No, I dn't mind a bit. If others don't mind the reposting of something that has appeared on the Usenet forum, it's all right with me

Henri

[GriffinCheng+]

WARNING!!!

Long post ahead, do not overtake.

WARNING!!!

Spoilers ahead, do not enter without suitable protection.

Here we go...

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>

(beginning of original message)

Subject: Combat Mission Villers-bocage Operation

From: arseno@phy.ulaval.ca (Henri H. Arsenault)

Date: 2000/07/06

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.war-historical

In addition to getting by German butt kicked in the Villers-Bocage

scenario, I posted yesterday an account of my first battle in the

3-scenario Operation of the same name. I finished the fist scenario as

the Germans with a single tank left, having no idea if I had done well or

not (probably not). This is NOT a tutorial on how to win this campaign...

8>(

The second scenario began with my having a sizeable reinforcement,

including a new tank for Wittmann: I didn't count exactly, but four or

Five Tigers, as many PzIVs and halftracks, and an assortment of infanty,

which I loaded into the haltracks. My force was located at the opposite

end of the map from the town, which could be reached by means of tghree

roads, the main paved road in the center plus two dirt roads on either

side. The leftmost road looped a bit behind Villers-Bocage, and any units

sent up that road were bound to arrive later than units following the

other two, so I decided to send my units in two columns up the center road

and the one to the right. I am not too fond of approaching the enemy in

column, but this is bocage country and there is not much choice, since the

roads are mostly flanked on both sides with impassable woods, and the

fields are mostly surrounded by impassable bocage (I tried to make a hole

through one bocage with tank fire, but to no avail). Each column

alternated Tigers, halftracks and PzIVs to avoid having the required unit

type at the rear when a fight broke up, one column being led by the single

available armored car, and the other by an empty halftrac (empty except

for the driver).

No doubt both roads would be protected, and my plan was to flush them out

and hope that my Tigers could blast them dead before they got lucky and

killed my tanks. I hoped tobe able to reach the town, where the enfantry

could go into action clearing out the buildings and protecting the tanks

from bazookas and AT guns (talk about blind optimism...).

You won't find this plan in any army manual, but whaddahell can one do

when he is forced to attack with a numerically inferior force along narrow

walled-in roads? The manuals say put your tanks in a ladder or wedge

formation depending on the direction of expected enemy resistance; oh

yeah! Just try to put tanks in a ladder formation on a bocage cowpath!

With a lot of units to move along a single path, I used the 8 key to

select each whole column in turn and to tell them to move forward along

the two roads. The columns rumbled forward, a beautiful sight to see (the

stupidity of your orders doesn't happen when there is no danger, no sir!

It happens just at the worst moment, following Von Morphy's Law of maximum

****load!

The roads are long, so forward they moved almost in parallel, although

there was no contact between them. As the rightmost column neared a bend

in the dirt road, the armored car burst into flames as a British tank in

the bend sent a shell through its front windshield. Two Tigers immediately

moved forward and received clanging frontal shots from the Sherman III

before they succeeded in dispatching it, while two halftracks backed out

of the way. Good reaction, good control, fine start, although I lost my

lead vehicle and only armored car. Not much use for a scout car on this

road anyway.

Further up the dirt road, there was a side road that gave me the

opportunity to send a couple tanks to the right, where a small ridge

following the road on the other side of the bocage gave a view of some of

the terrain on the other side of the road, and on part of the intersection

with the NW-SE road that intersected both my roads at an angle. The

heavily forested intersection no doubt held some British ambushers.

The column on the main road passed the burnt-out tanks from the previous

scenario without mishap, but soon after, the shooting began. The leading

halftrack backed up to the side of the road as the Tigers moved forward to

engage the enemy, which included tanks and infantry. As the column

continued to advance followoing my group instruction to hunt forward, the

halftracks suddenly began to pass my tanks and to forge forward, past some

startled British tanks off the road to the right where there were holes in

the bocage, and into the teeth of a combined British force of tanks,

vehicles and infantry. Before I could do anything, all my halftracks on

the main road had thrown themselves into the cauldron to be eventually

wiped out *sob*. The tanks forged forward, knocking out enemy vehicles and

tanks. Then one or two fireflies up the road began to take a toll of my

PZIVs, and knocked out a few and one Tiger. I suddenly found myself with

only three Tigers left on the paved road, one of them having turned off to

the right to engage various enemies in the open fields in that area. I

moved the two others forward behind some destroyed tanks hoping that they

would be hull-down, but they too were soon dispatched after clearing the

road as far as I could see. So I brought the remaining Tiger back to the

road, hoping that most enemies along the road had been disposed off and

moved gingerly forward. BOOM!, the last Tiger exploded. What the hell?...I

watched in disgust as two Shermans appeared in the field off to the left,

where they had been hiding, probably covering the westernmost road that I

didn't use. That left me with only the other road.

In the meantime, my tanks on the other road had reached the area near the

intersection, where a host of enemy tanks were waiting for them. My tanks

on the hill to the right helped my tanks from the otehr road clear a

number of enemies in the fields between the two roads, then engaged in the

battle for the intersection, where eight enemy tanks were dispatched with

a few casualties of my own. I moved one Tiger through the wreckage and

spotted an infantry platoon in the woods on the other side of the road,

who launched a few granades at the Tiger and killed it. YEOW!... I brought

forward my flamethrower infantry, who roasted one squad before dying, then

put another tank on a slight rise from where the infantry was visible and

blasted them until they ran off. Then I brought a Tiger and two PzIVs

through the intersection without incident, except for some harmless

exchange of fire with nearby infantry.

My infantry on the ridge to the right was having difficulty finding a path

back to the road, so while they were doing so, I decided to send the three

tanks that had crossed the intersection SE on the road to an intersection

with a road that went up to the town, which might be weakly defended. I

didn't pay attention to the order, and the two PzIVs came around the

intersection before the Tiger, and were immediately taken under fire by a

Shermann IIIc up the road a bit; with two shots, he killed the two Panzers

before they could react, GRRRRRR! Red with anger, I rounded the corner

with the Tiger and ordered it to target the bastard. Both tnks exchanged a

half-dozen shots each before the Tiger's shell hit the Sherman, winning

the battle. As tghe scenario ended, I had three tanks and a couple of

halftracks left for the next phase, and I was still far from entering the

town. Just to see the result I surrendered the game, where I saw that I

had inflicted considerably more casualties than I had taken except for

infantry, where most of my idiotic halftrack-borne infantry had

surrendered.

It is generally considered that a ratio of 3:1 is required for a

successful assault, but this ratio should be in favor of the attacker, not

the defender, and in this situation where the lanes of attack are

predetermined and narrow, I doubt that this ratio is sufficient. Maybe I

would have had better results if I had divided my force into three roads

and if I had taken the trouble to give indivicual units their orders, thus

avoiding the halftrack charge that cost me over half of my infantry.

An amusing incident: at one point, the sound completely disappeared, and I

thought "Damm, the program has killed my sound card!..." It turned out

that during a particularly violent firefight, I had inadvertently

unplugged the power cord from my speakers with my foot. In the

advertisements for this game, they could add that it is good exercise. I'm

not sure if the puddle of water under my chair is from sweat or from

something else. After one particularly vociferous reaction to some

unpleasant event on the screen, I noticed the cat looking at me with a

startled look and a rounded back. My wife, at least is resigned and

doesn't even bat an eye when I yell Achtung, Firefly!

Henri

(end of original message)

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

And here is one of the follow-ups which is filled with tips...

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>

(beginning of original message)

Subject: Re: Combat Mission Villers-bocage Operation

From: durkineb@erinet.com (Ed Durkin)

Date: 2000/07/07

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.war-historical

On Thu, 06 Jul 2000 15:23:38 GMT, arseno@phy.ulaval.ca (Henri H.

Arsenault) wrote:

>

>An amusing incident: at one point, the sound completely disappeared, and I

>thought "Damm, the program has killed my sound card!..." It turned out

>that during a particularly violent firefight, I had inadvertently

>unplugged the power cord from my speakers with my foot. In the

>advertisements for this game, they could add that it is good exercise. I'm

>not sure if the puddle of water under my chair is from sweat or from

>something else. After one particularly vociferous reaction to some

>unpleasant event on the screen, I noticed the cat looking at me with a

>startled look and a rounded back. My wife, at least is resigned and

>doesn't even bat an eye when I yell Achtung, Firefly!

>

>Henri

Great story, Henri. You certainly have the passion for AAR's.

I've fared reasonably in my second play of the Villers-Bocage

scenario. That time, I still lost two Tigers (including Wittman's as

immobilized instead of killed) and the Pz IV, but trashed the

Allied forces without hunting through the town.

Here are some of the tenets I stuck by in the second play:

1) Whenever maneuvering the tanks, I always tried for positions

that allowed an "alley shot" (down a road or street) while blocking

as much return LOS as possible to the sides and rear of the tanks. For

example, I would have a Tiger drive close to a house to help cover it

from flanking and rear fire, while at the same time keeping the

Tiger's "covered arc" open enough for shots. The idea is NOT to let

the British tanks get multiple shot opportunities at ANY of the tanks

if possible. Even a Sherman's or Cromwell's 75mm gun can get lucky

when close enough ar allowed to hit enough times.

2) The crew experience of the German tanks are veteran to elite

(Wittman), thus all the more reason that one-to-one duels favor the

Germans. But the turret traverse of the Tiger isn't particularly

fast, so keep the enemy units (both tanks & infantry) at a standoff of

100 meters or more. Regardless of Wittman's legendary historic

actions, his act of driving into enemy forces point-blank and blasting

away isn't very repeatable in this game. The scenario designer (Bill

Wilder) opted to make the Brits "conscript" and "green" in typical

unit experience in order to help set up the historical Wittman

situation as a possibility , but I'm not sure that I agree with this

experience setting.

3) It's much more preferable to have Wittman set up for "alley shots"

that limit return fire while waiting for the reinforcing tank platoon.

Do NOT get close to the British infantry that could swarm like bees

around the Tiger, and get flanking PIAT shots. But do engage (at

standoff) and suppress the British infantry enough (these will move

towards the German VP location) so that the reinforcing German

infantry can then catch the pinned British infantry with their pants

down.

4) It seems that there are a lot of Fireflies in the British tank

mix. I haven't checked, but there MIGHT be a greater allotment of

these than one per 4-tank troop (the historic organization at this

time). The 17-lbr can easily cut into a Tiger's armor if it scores a

hit. Try your utmost to bag these by ambush instead of head-on duels.

If the Firefly gets the first shot but misses, and your Tiger misses

in turn, it's very likely the second Firefly shot will strike home.

Get the first shot against these buggers as much as possible.

(end of original message)

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Enjoy!

Griffin gonna sleep!

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"+" is just the beginning. Expect to see "GriffinCheng76", "GriffinCheng(105)" or "GriffinChengA3E8" more should Forum problems occur again