Rugged Defense CM Tournament AARs - Buckeye vs Me262

[RobH]

The second in the series of AARs from Round 4 in the Rugged Defense Short-75 and Panther-76 Tournaments and accompanying movies is now available on the Rugged Defense Combat Mission Tournament AAR website.

Also, read all about the Tournaments themselves from the Rugged Defense Combat Mission Tournament website.

I had hoped to make the AARs available in sequence so each player had one of his AARs posted before the second AAR from any player was posted. Unfortunately, not all the AARs have been prepared as speedily as I had hoped, so we are moving on to the second of Buckeye's AARs for now, this time playing Me262.

This is the same map as for the previous Barleyman vs Buckeye AAR but you will see an entirely different style of attack and defense in this battle. In fact the Allied defender, Me262, has considerably more infantry than the German attacker, Buckeye, and has obviously compromised by reducing his forces in other areas.

We really do have a special treat for you with this AAR. If you think there will be very much left of this sleepy lakeside town on a cold, damp, foggy, December morning after this battle is over, you have another think coming. This battle may appear to start slowly with little action for the first 10 turns, but you can be sure it literally heats up very quickly after that.

This AAR really does show just how difficult it can be to get a foothold into a well defended town and is an excellent example of how to keep your defence fluid and reactive to an attacker's moves.

Thanks Buckeye and Me262 for a very fiery and destructive battle as well as an instructive one !

Rugged Defense had well over 300 downloads of the first AAR posted a couple of weeks ago. Go here to read the thread about the Barleyman vs Buckeye AAR if you missed it and need some background to the battle itself. The RD server was overloaded with the demand for the movies and thanks to the generous offer from Battlefront.com and CMHQ, just the AARs themselves are now being hosted on the Rugged Defense website while the movies are being hosted at CMHQ. Thanks Steve and Madmatt for arranging this and helping us out.

Oh yes, enjoy this battle! There is a lot to learn from it.

The 3rd AAR in the series should be published in 10 days to a fortnight.

Rob

[ June 02, 2002, 06:14 PM: Message edited by: Robert Hall ]

[Walker]

Thanks guys - I've been looking forward to the this!

[Runyan99]

Very interesting. Personally, I thought that the time constraint was a little too short. I would certainly want more than 30 minutes to make the same attack.

[Silvio Manuel]

Thankya for the morsel.

[Ligur]

Originally posted by Runyan99:

Very interesting. Personally, I thought that the time constraint was a little too short. I would certainly want more than 30 minutes to make the same attack.

While I agree with the time constraint this scenario is planned to be unbalanced and very difficult for the attacker. So it is more of a matter of how well the attacker loses =)

[RobH]

Hehe! Yes, this map is deliberately meant to be extremely difficult for the attacker to successfully complete his attack in the time-frame allowed of 30 turns. The map makes no pretensions at offering a "balanced scenario" within the time constraints. All contestants played the map both as the attacker and the defender and they were allowed to chose their own forces according to the Tournament Rules. Thus any inherent advantage the defender may or may not be perceived to have, should have evened out when the defender simultaneously played his attack battle.

The AARs where the attacker succeeded and won the battle within the time-frame allowed are being left to the end !

Rob

[Buckeye]

Runyan: I, too, would have liked more time, although I'm not sure it would have made much difference. I had to hurry my infantry a bit, and probably could have conserved my arty better, but the outcome really wasn't dependent on time. It really depended on the clash between Me262's massive infantry force and my combined arms. With some smoke (stupid omission on my part) and 155 mm arty in place of 120 mm mortars, I may have been able to make the assault successfully despite the time constraints.

Liqur: So, did I lose well?

[Ligur]

Originally posted by Buckeye:

Liqur: So, did I lose well?

Better then I would lose ;P

[Runyan99]

Buckeye: I think you underestimate the advantage more time could have given you. With another 10 minutes, you could have shelled all resistance in front of the village with your StuHs and Panthers, and then sent in the infantry when it was safer. As it was, the infantry assaulted the village very quickly (right into the teeth of the American infantry), without the benefit of extended preperation by your tanks and assault guns.

I understand that the time limit was an intentional handicap. My only point is that it forces the attacker to play recklessly (as opposed to simply aggressively).

[Fionn]

I disagree.

The time limit is tight for most players but I would disagree that it forces them to play recklessly.

Having looked at the map etc I think total victory for the attacker is certainly attainable within the time limit. Difficult? Yes. Impossible? No.

Just my opinion of course but I've covered more ground over more difficult ground more quickly than that and if I can do it then it can be done by most others.

[Buckeye]

Runyan: I don't think I was all that reckless. I'd rather have my infantry assaulting while I'm blasting away at the buildings. Alhtough I probably could have done a better job of coordinating all the infantry units, my problem was, primarily, my inability to drop smoke to cover the ford crossing and to cover the units attacking up the middle so that they weren't being fired upon from multiple directions (especially from the platoon to the right of the village).

I also spent more time than I should have on the approach, and could have gained some more back if I had moved more quickly. I was being cautious, but probably unjustifiably so. I tend to agree with Fionn: A difficult mission, especially against a quality opponent like Me262, but not impossible.