RobH Posted September 29, 2002 Share Posted September 29, 2002 The seventh and final 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. At last for those who have waited a long time, a Short-75 battle! This is the only battle in Round 4 of the Short-75 Tournament where we are publishing an AAR and is one of only two battles in the Short-75 Tournament where the Axis attacker wins. As in the Panther-76 Axis attacker win, Pak40 manages to secure a win before the full 30 turns and even manages to secure 4 out of the 5 flags. Although it was not an auto-surrender this time, Pobs' position is untenable by Turn 29, so again, who said the attacker could not win in 30 turns ? Of all the battles in Round 4, this one best reflects the "classic" type of battle I was expecting when I designed this map. Pak40 identifies the two main avenues of approach on this map and decides to split his forces into a two-pronged attack where the majority of his forces fight their way up the dirt road and into the town through the flank, while using perhaps just one quarter of his forces to take the other side of the town over the fords. Note this time Pak40 uses no smoke to cross the fords but, in reality, there is not much opposition when he decides to take the plunge and wade through the water. Pobs puts up a spirited forward defence to try and delay the attacking Germans but loses most of his guns for very little cost. He also appears spread a little thin by trying to defend too much territory rather than concentrating his defence a little better. Unfortunately, when Pobs is forced to retreat back into the town to defend it, he simply has too few forces remaining to defend against Pak40's marauding Veteran Germans. Pobs is also very unlucky to effectively lose a Sherman from immobilisation in the town, while Pak40 gets away without any bogging despite running his PzIVs and StuHs over a lot of damp ground. Arrrggghhhh, such are the fortunes of war! This is the same map of course as for the previous AARs but you will again see another entirely different style of attack and defence in this battle. Thanks Pak40 and Pobs for another couple of excellent AARs and for making the after action analysis so worthwhile for us "armchair generals" to analyse, criticise and praise! As always, these superb AARs and movies, which also include plan view pictures of the battlefield from Pak40 for us to see exactly how his plan develops, contain a lot of extremely useful information and practical lessons for many of us to learn to try and use in our own battles. Previous AARs from the recent Rugged Defense Tournaments have already been covered in the following threads: Barleyman vs Buckeye Buckeye vs Me262 Me262 vs Barleyman Hodo vs Vandal Vandal vs Broken! Broken! vs Hodo This is the last of the Rugged Defense Round 4 battle AARs. The 4 x Round 5 Final Short-75 and Panther-76 Tournament battle AARs will be published in November and December when I return from a trip to the USA during October. The map is completely different for the Round 5 Final and the terrain is all very open and hilly. Expect some nail-biting action in all these forthcoming AARs ! As previously, any discussion on the AAR is most welcome on this thread. Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broken Posted September 29, 2002 Share Posted September 29, 2002 Rob, Thanks again for all the hard work you did in presenting these AARs. Can you imagine attacking on this map in the CMBB environment? A delay-style defense with MGs would work very well. Probably would need 50 turns, not 30! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tecumseh Posted September 30, 2002 Share Posted September 30, 2002 thanks dudes for such excellent AARs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cubes Posted September 30, 2002 Share Posted September 30, 2002 Have to agree, totally enjoyed the read. BTW what program was used to put all that detail on the screen shots ? Geoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobH Posted October 1, 2002 Author Share Posted October 1, 2002 Sorry, don't know Geoff as the tactical maps in the AAR were done by Pak40. Probably just something like Paintshop Pro or some other "paint" program onto a saved plan-view picture of the battlefield. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeddyB Posted October 3, 2002 Share Posted October 3, 2002 Looking at the minutes 1 - 7... What a speed of attack only with infantry at first wave! I am wondering what made the difference between Hodo - Vandal struggle and this one? Is it the artillery which really hit Hodo much more than the guns and MGs to Pak40? This time it seems that the defensive fire doesn't stop the attack. The troops get mostly through it to the targets which don't have that much defensive infantry to protect them? Teddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeddyB Posted October 6, 2002 Share Posted October 6, 2002 I just finished the battle, thanks again for all to make these possible! And the AARs are excellent views to the actions and thoughts on both sides! When comparing what happened in this battle it looks like defender has: - a lot more long range firepower in fotm og guns and mg:s - a lot less infantry, only 6 platoons - only 3 * 81 mm mortar artillery The MG:s and guns don't seem to be able to stop the advancing infantry. Broken! noted that MGs in CMBB would be better!? (I still don't have my copy yet, waiting it for thursday). Realistically I would have expected the mg:s to slow the attacker more so that the guns had time to shoot more. This seems not to be the case in CMBO. The number of infantry, only six platoons looks to form very thin line and most are then lost before the defense in town begins. Others took between 7 1/2 to 12 platoons. The 81mm mortars aren't that effective, most others selected also 4.2" mortars which created more destruction than smaller ones. Also it looks like later in the game the attackers troops were more concentrated but then most of the ammo had already been used. Bad luck with Sherman immobilizing in scattered trees. Attacker also went through various scattered trees without bogging. Somewhere in this forum I have got the feeling that to bog is much more likely in scattered trees than on open ground? Is this true? About the mines, the M8 HMC returned via the road at hing speed and ran between the two minefields. Was there a path between them or is it expected that own side minefield is passable to own vehicles? Teddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nippy Posted October 6, 2002 Share Posted October 6, 2002 "The MG:s and guns don't seem to be able to stop the advancing infantry. Broken! noted that MGs in CMBB would be better!? (I still don't have my copy yet, waiting it for thursday). Realistically I would have expected the mg:s to slow the attacker more so that the guns had time to shoot more. This seems not to be the case in CMBO." The New HMG's in CMBB are completly insane! I had a single entrenched MG34 (AI) hold up an entire Guards Recon Company(Me) for over 10 turns! :eek: CMBB is a whole new ball game... Read the AAR about the MG-34 and other things here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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