"Falling Eagles" by Mensch: AAR (spoiler)

[David Aitken]

This scenario should just have gone up at Der Kessel (www.derkessel.de). The following is an AAR of the beta for Mensch's benefit, played between myself and CMplayer (Rett). I don't think the final version is significantly different.

• • • • •

Thanks for the scenario - it was rather an interesting fight.

I would first like to complain in the strongest possible terms at the

lack of aircraft. The briefing clearly stated that there were aircraft

buzzing overhead and the 88 was shooting at them, but when I loaded up

the map... nothing! If I don't see the US paras dropping from their

aircraft in the final version, so that I'm able to shoot them as they

come down, I may have to boycott this and the rest of your shoddy work.

I spent the first turn doing that wonderful thing that CM enables -

micromanaging from my god-perspective. All of my men were nicely laid

out in teams as though they were in their billets, with one platoon on

patrol, but was I going to pretend that they were all tired and confused

and would end up prancing around the countryside in twos and threes as

they realistically would? Of course not. So by the second or third turn

my company was arranged in its three platoons around the town, the

patrol had organised itself down at the HQ, the company commander was

back in the village (or at least he would have been if the Kübelwagen

hadn't left without him), and I'd sent trucks to pick up the 50mm guns.

I allocated one Hotchkiss to each platoon and sent two out to the HQ.

The first action phase was beautiful, like something out of a film, as

men and vehicles sprang into action and rushed back and forth.

I spent half of the battle on the assumption that paras were about to

drop in all around town (and not conveniently out west where the glider

troops were), so I kept two platoons back in the woods around the

village, to the south and southwest. The third platoon was to the

northwest, so this ended up going out to confront the glider troops, and

of course the platoon out at the HQ was in combat throughout. Therefore

Rett only had to deal with two platoons and three tanks initially, then

another two plus tanks when I decided that I wasn't about to be swamped

in paras. I brought all of the support units into the woods at the

centre of the village, and then redistributed them amongst the

buildings, so this was the final hurdle he faced.

The platoon and two tanks at the HQ were allright for the first few

turns. One tank was quickly gun-damaged and rendered useless, I think by

60mm mortars. The squads were a bit panicky, but held out. I used the

off-board 81mm mortars to shell the woods across the grain field from

the HQ, where Rett appeared to be rallying some of his troops. I took

out an AT gun on the diagonal stretch of road to the northwest, and lost

the gun-damaged tank to a bazooka from the main road. Before long Rett

was advancing up the road and the fields on the northern side, so I

brought the platoon in to try and flank him, whereupon the remaining

tank was taken out by another AT gun next to the first, and the men came

under fire from the aforementioned woods and elsewhere and all panicked.

That platoon ceased to exist as a fighting unit, but some of the men

survived his mopping-up efforts and the remnants of one squad rejoined

the battle at the end (another was permanently routed).

During this time I deployed the 50mm guns on either side of the road to

the west of the village. One was taken out by .5in fire before it

unlimbered. The other was able to provide some support fire for a few

turns, although 50mm HE is nothing special (better than the useless 37mm

on the tanks, though). Two HMG42s I put in the tall light buildings

above happened to have LOS to the advancing enemy, and were active

throughout, expending all of their ammunition before the end. I

subsequently brought my two 81mm mortars forward to just behind the 50mm

gun, and put fire on enemy troops advancing up the road (at minimum

range), and on support units along the back of the northern grain field,

before withdrawing them to the woods in the centre of the village where

my crews were mustering.

The platoon to the northwest of the village went out to meet Rett's

advancing troops. I was hoping to catch them coming across the field,

but they were protected by the bocage from my positions in the trees, so

I moved my men forward to the bocage. The platoon's Hotchkiss exchanged

fire with one of Rett's .5in machineguns and survived. My men took fire

and started panicking, and one of CM's bugs came into play whereby they

didn't regard bocage as cover. The right-hand squad ran into nearby

brush where it was finished off by a US squad emerging from the bocage.

The left-hand squad ran out towards the road, into the bocage, and was

instantly massacred by Rett's troops on the road. I withdrew the centre

squad to the woods, where it caught a US squad coming through the

hedge-lined gap in the bocage, but didn't cause too many casualties.

Shortly thereafter I was overwhelmed by Rett's troops and the tank was

taken out by a rifle grenade at close range. I called the 81's in on

those woods, immediately to the west of the village, some of the rounds

hitting buildings occupied by my own troops.

At this point I realised that paras or no paras, I would have to commit

my remaining two platoons. On the south side, I advanced the platoon and

its tank to the edge of the trees, where they were in a position to hold

off Rett's troops which had finished mopping up my HQ platoon. The

platoon to the southeast I ran up to the 88mm emplacement. No sooner had

they arrived than Rett charged the buildings where my machineguns (and

FO) were, and his troops were massacred.

The southern platoon was now facing off against at least equal numbers

of US troops, and were suddenly outflanked by a couple of crack squads,

which (I later learned) had just dropped in. The paras charged in and

were suppressed (I think they may have already been in a bad state), but

one or two of my squads panicked, so I had to pull back the third, the

platoon commander and the tank to the small buildings in front of the church.

I noticed a US squad trying to crawl through the wire to the east of the

village, one of only two which I confirmed as paras before Rett

appraised me of the situation at the end. They were machinegunned, but

another sneaked into the church behind my marksmen and took out the

veteran before he was also caught in a hail of fire.

I sent the platoon at the 88mm emplacement, my only remaining platoon

(and probably the best, going by the commander's attributes) forward to

clear up US troops in the woods, with the intention of sweeping round

across the road to deal with the strongest remaining US position to the

south of the village. I bypassed a couple of squads which subsequently

opened up on the 88, taking out all but two of the crewmen, who

nevertheless managed to return fire, and dealt with the threat together

with a squad which I sent back. The platoon then proceeded across the

road and was joined by the one aforementioned squad from the original HQ

platoon. Immediately prior to this I had withdrawn the machinegun (with

little ammunition left) and company commander from the building Rett had

just charged overlooking the 88, leaving the gun unprotected, because

fire from his surviving AT gun at the bend in the road was threatening

to bring the place down.

Rett attempted to charge the small buildings in front of the church, and

was cut down by the remnants of my second-last squad, backed up by

machineguns and assorted platoon commanders in the other buildings. He

then either withdrew his remaining squads from the trees, or more likely

I think they panicked, and were caught in the open by my last platoon.

Time up, and the scoreboard said:

Axis

110 casualties

2 guns KO

7 vehicles KO

118 men OK

Score 63

Allied

188 casualties

4 mortars KO

1 gun KO

45 men OK

Score 37

Minor Axis victory.

I only lost one Kübelwagen (after taking the platoon commander down to

the HQ building on turn one) and two trucks (one after emplacing the

50mm gun which wasn't immediately taken out, and the other I don't

remember why). I kept the rest parked neatly in the middle of town where

they were largely protected. That means, of course, that four of my lost

vehicles were Hotchkisses - I only had one left at the end. Hotchkisses

are useless against infantry, and I'm sure the green crews didn't help.

They were little more than armoured, mobile machineguns, because the

37mm gun wasn't much use. So they didn't assist my defence particularly much.

Likewise for the 50mm guns - HE not terribly effective, and no tanks to

kill, so they added relatively little. The 88mm gun only came into play

when it was directly attacked. It got a couple of shots in at an enemy

squad earlier on (which had just taken out my surviving 50mm), and one

well-placed shot at Rett's charging infantry across the road at the very end.

The infantry was of limited usefulness. They put some fire down on the

US squads, but generally panicked when any significant volume of fire

was returned, and were dead if the enemy got up close. Towards the end I

thought Rett had the upper hand, but I managed to hold him off thanks to

the small reserve of firepower I had amongst the buildings. The HMG42s

were probably my greatest asset, bar the off-board 81mm mortars, but

were out of ammunition well before the end. I'm not convinced that the

marksmen achieved anything.

On the whole, I think this was a very realistic scenario. The Americans

were well-trained but disorganised due to the drop, and the Germans were

inexperienced and had a variety of moderately useful (or moderately

useless) weapons. Had I left the village unguarded, I probably would

have had an easier time of it, but I did feel that if Rett had been any

better a player, I would have been toast. I suppose we're both

moderately good players, so the fact that I came out marginally on top

indicates that the scenario is quite well balanced (prior to this I beat

him in another TCP game, but maybe due as much to luck and a bad force

selection on his part than anything else).

In terms of balance, up until the end I was going to say the Americans

have an advantage, but I'd have to conclude that it's about equal. In

terms of realism, it's fine - and if Rett had annihilated me, it would

probably have been all the more realistic.

[CMplayer]

Hard lessons learned

It was very interesting as a lesson in

FOW to read David's description of this

match. Time and again he refers to

platoons where I had a squad or

squads where I had a crew or a battered

HQ. I experienced the same thing, and

thought I was up against half again

as many troops as I really was in that

confused overcast dawn.

This scenario had a very descriptive

briefing, so when the map came up I

really had the feeling of being in

a believable situation. This wasn't

front line combat against fixed positions.

It was the outskirts of a French village

where almost everyone was asleep, or

just waking up. A kubelwagen burned rubber

and started racing up a road to come

under fire from killer paras, and trucks

and vehicles were suddenly showing up

with men and equipment. I was discovered!

The only thing lacking was the barking of

German Shepherds. David took _forever_

to plot his first move, btw. If he had

stuck to some kind of a time limit, the

confusion in the German camp would have

been greater at the outset. This is

not a criticism of him, though. I looked

at his setup later, and HQ's are drinking

at the cafe, half squads billetted all over

town, and guns and vehicles parked at

various points. Putting it all together

must be a mess.

On my right side I send a half squad towards

a farmhouse. If I had read the briefing

more carefully, or had labels turned on,

I would have been more careful as that

was the German security forces HQ! I also

missed the advice in the briefing about

flanking the village to the right (south)

and working in that way. So these two

initial mistakes led to my first thrust

coming up the center, on the tree lined

sunken road leading straight into town.

Once I got over my initial shock, I noticed

that my paras could deal quite well with

what were obviously green opponents. His

tanks were destroyable, his men routable

and killable. But I don't think I would

ever have gotten past the security HQ on

the right after my intital lost halfsquad

if David hadn't chosen to counterattack

towards the sunken road. That gave me a

shot at his second Hotchkiss and enabled

me to chew up his troops with counterflanking

paras who had recovered quickly from his

prep bombardment with 81mm mortars.

(David said 'rallying' but those guys

had never broken. I had just pulled them

out of sight of his hotchkiss)

By then I had gone back and looked at the

briefing, and so I left off mopping up

his men and advanced on the right flank.

Once I got reinforcements but couldn't

find them! I decided (it being late at

night and I was getting sleepy) that

it was a sick joke on the part of the

scenario designer, an empty reinf. slot!

Not so. It was two crack squads who had

parad in so close to the action, right

under the eaves of an MG held building,

that I didn't notice them on the overhead

view. So no orders were given to help

these guys out, and unfortunately they

were routed and broken quickly. Hard

lessons learned.

At that point I had made significant

advances, and the interesting thing is

that this was not in line with the advice

in the briefing. I had thrust straight

forward up the center sunken road. David

had tried to guard this approach with

mortars and light guns, but I took care of

those pretty quick. In the patch of forest

north of the road by the town, he had

a Hotchkiss and some infantry stalling my

advance through the wheatfield. I took

advantage of the confusion to run up

to the edge of the village from the road

and swing left, going around the bocage,

to close assault his light tank, and

finish off his infantry. This was dangerous

of course, but seemed in character for paras.

The next step seemed naturally to storm the

buildings housing his MGs, but I was

caught in a schoolbook ambush. David's

reserve platoon had taken up a perfect

position to fire at close range as I came

into the open and I lost about 1 1/2

squads. My plan was flawed from the beginning

as I had reason to believe that his 88

was covering the buildings, so I would

have come under deadly area-fire in there.

On the right (south) flank, I moved

forward as instructed, and began greeting

landing paras. These tended to be

'pinned' on arrival and needed time to

recover before being pressed into duty.

Stupidly, I tried to exploit their firepower

while they were still 'shaken' and

they quickly reverted to pinned status

in the firefight. Once pinned their

high quality didn't help. Chalk that one

up to lack of experience. Give the newly

dropped paras a turn or two get ready

before pressing them into the line! This

was just one of many finesses in the design

of the scenario.

Even a .30 cal mg and an HQ showed up

behind the village. (David called them

two squads) I tried to sneak them

into position to support a rush on the

town, but the MG was discovered and came

under massive fire. The HQ ran into a

church and went all the way up into the

steeple to chuck out a sharpshooter they

had noticed up there. But every gun in

town opened up on them. I realized, too

late, that that was the turn when my

Paras in the patch of trees south of

town should have rushed the village.

TIMING TIMING TIMING! Hard lessons

learned.

On the left I snuck a tattered HQ and

a mortar crew (yes I fought with mortar

crews, and I'm not ashamed of it this

being the 101'st Airborne at a critical

hour) up to scout out the location of

the 88 gun. They got into a close range

firefight with the 88 crew which they had

a chance of winning. That was a surprising

lapse in security on David's part, but

I didn't have the resources left there

to exploit it. Again the confusion factor

was big here.

I was happy to see my boys had KO'd 4 light

tanks: 1 with a bazooka team (which

survived the battle), 1 with a rifle grenade

at point blank range, and 2 with a

57mm AT gun, which I had had to move with

a jeep, and manhandle around twice.

These kills are probably what gave me

the points to only get a minor loss.

I was satisfied with the computer's

assessment of the result, and think this

scenario felt balanced. I played well

(in my judgement) towards the beginning

after the initial shock, but slipped up

towards the end. So I got what I deserved.

I would love to see more games of this

sort to play double-blind in TCP. This

was definitely a 'first time is best'

scenario, though I would happily try

it again as either side against any player.

Map: 10

Atmosphere: 10

Play balance: 10 (low confidence figure)

Size: small

AI playability: Haven't tried.

To sum up, I think this map and setup

lead to a situation where there are

lots of possibilities to take intitiatives

and try to play creatively. My attack

started out in a completely different

way than that envisioned by the scenario

designer, and had good chances of

succeeding. Also, the map is intricate

both in terms of elevation and terrain.

This makes for complex interactions

between the several areas of action. On

the whole it was an exciting and

entertaining game, which really engaged

the imagination. It was _believable_

in a way that QB's often aren't.

thanks, Mensch and David!

--Rett

[ 08-08-2001: Message edited by: CMplayer ]

[CMplayer]

Here are some specific responses to

statements in David's review. This

is just to satisfy my pride Pls

don't take my comments as cranky. They

could sound that way, but they ain't.

> one of Rett's .5in machineguns

My _only_ .5" MG, David! I had a lot

less troops, on the whole, than you

seem to assess.

> I noticed a US squad trying to crawl

> through the wire to the east of the

> village... but another sneaked into the

> church...

an HQ and a .30 MG

> I bypassed a couple of squads which

> subsequently opened up on the 88,

An HQ and a crew, about 5 men total.

If I had all the 'squads' you're

attributing to me I would have

gotten a total victory!

> Hotchkisses are useless against infantry,

You have to view them as what they are,

support weapons. They definitely helped

stall me at several points, and injured

several of my men. 'Useless' is really

too strong of a word; they contribute

to your overall firepower, just as

a light mortar can do, but with greater

accuracy, speed, armor, and an MG to boot!

> (prior to this I beat

> him in another TCP game, but maybe due as

> much to luck and a bad force

> selection on his part than anything else).

What is _bad_ about 2 shermans, a chaffee

and a rifle company? I didn't know I'd

be up against 10 marders and 10 stuH's.

--Rett

[ 08-08-2001: Message edited by: CMplayer ]

[David Aitken]

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

What is _bad_ about 2 shermans, a chaffee and a rifle company?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Only a company? I was under the impression that your force was very infantry-heavy. I suppose a standard US company costs a good bit more than a German rifle company, so that would have left you with fewer points for armour.

Your comments about FOW are interesting. On occasion I'm surprised in a game by the number of units my opponent seems to have. Maybe I should be more confident that I have the forces necessary to overcome the enemy.

[CMplayer]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by David Aitken:

Only a company? I was under the impression that your force was very infantry-heavy.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Okay, maybe 4 rifle platoons total.

I often like to buy a regular rifle

company augmented with one vet platoon.

I then put the lamest regs (HQ-wise) in

reserve and lead with the vets.

This does leave me less points for armor

but I usually supplement the infantry's

AT with a couple of extra vet zooks. The

difference between reg and vet is very

noticeable in AT teams, IMO.

I've found this force works pretty well,

though in the game with you it was a

disaster. Is it a reasonable force, history

wise? Will I incur the disfavor of more

serious players showing up with these

units?

--Rett

[ 08-08-2001: Message edited by: CMplayer ]

[Lane]

Just played "Falling Eagles" I played as Allied vs Al (Germans) Axis Minor Victory.

German score 59 Allied score 41 Very good

Battle. I just play my battles against AL.

Never have played a PBEM or on internet.

I just am happy playing Al.

going to play this battle over again. Very

Fun to play.

Lane

[Gpig]

Just played this one, also.

Allied (me) versus Axis (computer, with +2 experience)

Allied tactical Victory.

Axis:

143 Casualties (31 kia)

2 mortars dstyd

1 gun dstyd

8 vehicles KO'd

men OK 85

score 34

Allies;

137 casualties (42 kia)

1 mortar dstyd

men OK 96

score 66

Really nice battle. TOUGH!

Nice map. Nice use of reinforcements. (dropping from the sky and all)

This would be tough on the americans, playing TCP/IP or PBEM. Germans seem to hold all the cards.

Gpig