Newbies Post Your Tourney AARs Here!!

[SuperTed]

Thanks, guys.

Jeff-driven? That reminds me: I have 17 new scenarios I made last night. I hope you're ready to test them. :cool:

Dave-Yikes! That sounds nasty indeed. :eek:

[ March 08, 2002, 01:56 PM: Message edited by: SuperTed ]

[Madmatt]

Originally posted by SuperTed:

Blah blah blah..I am a giant wimp...blah blah blah OWIE...blah blah blah

Hey, don't you have some work to do on CMHQ which I can take credit for?!?

Madmatt

[BeauCoupDinkyDau]

I keep telling Ted this whole sockher thing is bad for him.

Ouch, Ted. ouch.

[ March 08, 2002, 01:10 PM: Message edited by: Vader's Jester ]

[SuperTed]

VJ,

I think you have me beat for location. But, I'm willing to bet I have you beat for intensity and duration.

[BeauCoupDinkyDau]

Originally posted by SuperTed:

VJ,

I think you have me beat for location. But, I'm willing to bet I have you beat for intensity and duration.

Oh, I agree Ted. I've been told your particular injury is very painful; and lasts quite a while.

[Toran]

Holy cows, Ted! What an ordeal! You Wisconsinners are every bit as tough as we Illinoiseys think you are!

Your bounce-back is fantastic - quite a few pros are done when they blow their ACL (hmmmm, maybe we can get Miller to blow out his...) I have every expectation that you'll be back out there kicking and head-banging that ball in no time!

[Flightdoc]

Super Ted,

Congratulations on your speedy recovery! I have been reading this board for over a year but I registered today because my professional curiosity overwelms me.

1. Was your ACL a "bone-tendon-bone", "hamstring" or allograph??

2. Did you mean "MCL" instead of "LCL"?

3. Are you in any type of brace now for soccer?

Again, congratulations on your perserverance. That operation is 20% surgeon and 80% physical therapy.

[YankeeDog]

An amazing story, ST. You deserve to be back playing soccer with all the hard work you have put in. It must have been frustrating for you to limit your physical activity for so long while you were rehabilitating. I know it would drive me crazy.

I severely injured both my knees (at different times - full patellar subluxations) when I was a kid. Fortunately, the young body is a remarkable thing. While I had to do PT (which I hated)and take large doses of anti-inflammatories for several years, I never required surgury and have no real lasting effects from the injuries.

Unfortunately, my doctor did nix any running sports for me after the second injury, so my soccer career was nipped in the bud. He advised my to find a less punishing form of exercise, so I took up ice hockey.

Seriously, best of luck on the resumption of your soccer career.

[SuperTed]

Originally posted by Flightdoc:

Super Ted,

Congratulations on your speedy recovery! I have been reading this board for over a year but I registered today because my professional curiosity overwelms me.

1. Was your ACL a "bone-tendon-bone", "hamstring" or allograph??

2. Did you mean "MCL" instead of "LCL"?

3. Are you in any type of brace now for soccer?

Again, congratulations on your perserverance. That operation is 20% surgeon and 80% physical therapy.

Doc,

Thanks.

1) It's the piece of patellar tendon that is now where my ACL used to be, so that would be the first option.

2) Nope. It's the LCL.

3) No braces for me. My teeth are great! <---See?

Actually, I think it's 5% surgeon, 20% PT, and 75% getting over the fear of returning to high-intensity activities again.

Now, if you really want to know how the procedure went, you can go here or here. The information at these sites is generally applicable to my experiences, but they're not perfect.

Enjoy!

[Enoch]

Ted,

First, congrats on getting clearance to play. I have several friends you play a lot and they would go batty if they had to lay off for a few weeks let alone 6 months.

I have never had a knee injury and I am sure you probably know a lot about the recovery process, probably more than myself. But I do know that while you can start playing again now, you should expect it to take another 6-12 months before you find you are back to where you were before your injury.

[SuperTed]

Originally posted by YankeeDog:

An amazing story, ST. You deserve to be back playing soccer with all the hard work you have put in. It must have been frustrating for you to limit your physical activity for so long while you were rehabilitating. I know it would drive me crazy.

I severely injured both my knees (at different times - full patellar subluxations) when I was a kid. Fortunately, the young body is a remarkable thing. While I had to do PT (which I hated)and take large doses of anti-inflammatories for several years, I never required surgury and have no real lasting effects from the injuries.

Unfortunately, my doctor did nix any running sports for me after the second injury, so my soccer career was nipped in the bud. He advised my to find a less punishing form of exercise, so I took up ice hockey.

Seriously, best of luck on the resumption of your soccer career.

YD,

It sounds like you had your fair share of knee injuries there too. I can see why you would want to take it easy and play hockey. :eek:

Thanks.

[Wolfpack]

Congrats on the recovery Ted. I blew out my ACL, MCL, and lost 80% of my miniscus and 30-40% of the cartiledge in my knee running sprints in PT while in the army, as you said, the noise is quite gruesome. I was given a medical discharge because they said I probably wouldn't be able to hump the gear and perform my duties (I was in the infantry). But about a year afterwards, I was back out playing football and raquetball, so I can understand completely your feeling when you got to go back out on the field. There's nothing like getting through that first game back...savor the moment.

[PawBroon]

I don't want to pull my Frenchness on you Ted but aren't 100+ soccers games a bit much for some foreign n00b?

I'm glad you're on your way to recovery and hope that you'll be able to kick balls in no time.

Pun intended BTW, don't yell at me...

[SuperTed]

Originally posted by Enoch:

Ted,

First, congrats on getting clearance to play. I have several friends you play a lot and they would go batty if they had to lay off for a few weeks let alone 6 months.

I have never had a knee injury and I am sure you probably know a lot about the recovery process, probably more than myself. But I do know that while you can start playing again now, you should expect it to take another 6-12 months before you find you are back to where you were before your injury.

Enoch,

Thank you for the advice. During the spring, I am planning to play in the field for one team and in the net for the other team. That will allow me to ease into playing again.

Actually, the last time I played was June 10, so tomorrow will be nine months.

Thanks.

[SuperTed]

Originally posted by Wolfpack:

Congrats on the recovery Ted. I blew out my ACL, MCL, and lost 80% of my miniscus and 30-40% of the cartiledge in my knee running sprints in PT while in the army, as you said, the noise is quite gruesome. I was given a medical discharge because they said I probably wouldn't be able to hump the gear and perform my duties (I was in the infantry). But about a year afterwards, I was back out playing football and raquetball, so I can understand completely your feeling when you got to go back out on the field. There's nothing like getting through that first game back...savor the moment.

Wolfpack,

Wow! You've definitely got me beat there. Thanks for helping me keep things in perspective.

[YankeeDog]

G&T Notes:

OK, discussions of ST’s heroic recovery is very inspiring, but it’s time to get this thread back on track. As the thread originator, I must admit that I’ve been rather remiss – I’ve only posted one AAR, so I’m going to try to atone for my sins here.

Round 2 has been going rather slowly for DL and I – we both have busy schedules and a big time difference to deal with. Sometimes, we were doing only one file a day. As a result, I ended up taking notes after each turn so I could remember was going on in the battle when I got the next file. I can type very quickly (75+ wpm), so I can take lots of notes very quickly. The following AAR is derived from the notes I took while we were playing the scenario. It’s hardly Shakespeare, but it’s pretty comprehensive. Enjoy/

Give and Take AAR

YankeeDog (Axis) vs. DL (Canadian)

Situation: Conditions are snowy. The map is a small village with one small VL in the middle. I am starting with one Conscript Volkssturm platoon distributed around the village. The platoon is missing its Panzershreck, but has an LMG attached. Setup zones are somewhat restricted – platoon commander, LMG & one squad deep in village are locked. The other three squads have separate setup zones. The briefing says that the rest of the Volkssturm Battalion is on its way. Little is known about the attacking forces, other than the fact that they are Canadian, and will probably comprise at least an infantry company, presumably with some heavy support (i.e., armour).

My Plan: Sacrifice lead platoon to gain time for promised reinforcements. Hold VL at all costs - Conscripts are crappy at attacking, so if I lose the VL, it I choose split all but rear squad into half squads and disperse them in lead line of buildings to maximize sight lines in hopes of getting and early view of what’s coming at me. In addition, splitting my squads may deceive my opponent – he’ll see twice as many units and so may be thrown off as to my real strength.

Turns 1-5: Half squads are given fall back/reunite movement orders right from the start, most terminating in the VL just in case, as the command delay is currently over two minutes. Trailing squad is ordered forward into VL. LMG is ordered to move within VL block to cover road. Platoon commander is ordered forward into light blockhouse in front of VL to hopefully get some of the lead half squads under command. Nothing happens on turn 1. On turn 2 I get reinforcements: two more Volks. Platoons – I order one to the Heavy Blockhouse on my L, one to buildings on my L. It will take them at least 4 turns to get there. On turn 2, my units sight 4 infantry units coming out of woods moving towards town. My closest team opens up, followed by the others (Lesson: Conscripts are trigger-happy – they were supposed to be hiding). I suffer no casualties, although the team that is closest to contact is panicked by the end of the turn. My platoon commander successfully moves forward but is now participating in the firefight - - this is bad – I don’t want him under fire. On turn 3 I lose the half squad in closest contact. A second half-squad I had previously ordered to move forward in case there was no contact by now gets moving – and is quickly pinned in the open (I had forgotten to delete these orders!). On the good side, by the end of the turn, his lead infantry? unit has been eliminated – I later figured out that it was the 2” mortar (the status box for this unit says “Knocked Out”, not “Eliminated” - I think this is a bug). Two of his units reach the Heavy Blockhouse on my R closest to the VL. This is bad. During turns 4-5 his units continue moving slowly forward towards the heavy blockhouse on my forward right; I certainly cause some casualties (some of his Infantry Squad? graphics are down to 2 men), but I don’t fully spot any units, so I still don’t know exactly what experience level of troops I am dealing with, or exactly how many casualties I have caused to any units except the mortar I completely eliminated. By the end of turn 5, my the platoon leader is panicked, so my entire original platoon is out of command. On the good side, my reinforcing platoons are coming up in good order and should be able to help in the firefight soon.

Turns 6-10 Notes: I get more reinforcements on turn 6 - an entire Volkssturm company – sans Panzerfausts, but with one LMG per platoon. These Platoons are ordered to Church (Left Flank), VL (Center), and Blockhouse (Rear Right), respectively – will adjust as needed. Generally, he continues to press an assault up the center. By turn 7, his units in the Heavy Blockhouse on my right are firing on my units in the VL. On turn 7, I also spot some new units coming out of the woods on the road – some appear to be moving towards my left flank, some straight up the road in the center – I conclude that I am now dealing with a full Company of Canadian Infantry – two platoons in the center, on moving to my left flank. My first wave of reinforcements reaches positions on turn 8. They are positioned to fire on his units if they try to cross the open ground to the VL. I also push the remains of my original platoon forward a bit on my left – I am hoping I can get far enough forward here to get some better spotting of his upcoming units and give me maneuver room to ambush any armour he might have upcoming. There is 2” mortar fire on the VL buildings on turns 8-9, as well as smoke. It breaks a squad and my LMG there, but otherwise doesn’t do much – this does lead me to think that a rush on the VL might be imminent, though. On turn 10, I get more reinforcements – another Volks. Company – this one with Schrecks. I now have the full battalion. I send one platoon to far right Flank with two Panzerschecks - Given the location of the roadblocks, this is the most likely location of an armoured attack. Another new platoon is ordered to the back of the VL buildings to be a reserve and move forward and take over if the forward units in VL get broken. The last new platoon is ordered to my left flank w/ one shreck in case he decides to send armour this way. It should also should be able to offer some interdiction fire on any infantry reinforcements. By the end of turn 10, he has succeeded in taking control of two more buildings on my right close to the VL, and is clearly pushing forward primarily on my right flank, but still has made no direct move on the VL itself. My second wave of reinforcements is about half in position. Note that I have still not fully spotted any enemy units by the end of turn 10, so I still don’t know exactly what the experience level of my opponent’s troops is, or exactly how many casualties I am causing.

Turns 11-15: By the end of turn 11, all but a couple of lagging units from the first wave are in position. I seem to do reasonably well in the f from my third wave of reinforcements are in position. He continues to press, mostly on the right flank, and I more or less hold my ground. I’m taking some casualties, but I have to believe that he is, too, and every turn my hold on the VL gets better – I still have one more company coming up. It’s time to start worrying about where and when his armour will make its appearance. On Turn 12, a 3” mortar spotting round falls near the heavy blockhouse on the rear right where I have a platoon. I leave them where they are, as heavy buildings are generally good protection against light artillery. Unfortunately, I fail to take into account Conscripts’ fragile morale – the ensuing barrage causes few casualties, but panics or breaks about a platoon and a half of my units, even though they’re pretty safe in the buildings. On the good side, if he had used this barrage to smoke the VL and then rushed it, I would have been screwed – I had only 2 good units in the VL at the time (and they both had casualties), so without interdicting fire from surrounding buildings, he easily could have taken control. On turn 13 a Sherman? shows up and starts targeting my units in the church. Unfortunately, it’s too far away from my lead units on the Left to get with a Shreck, and the Faust I sent to that side is still a good two turns away. On turn 14 I get my armour – a flame half-track (uncalled for bitch: a Flame HT!? I wanted something with a GUN, dammit – I need anti-armour – I have his infantry under control!!) – I order it to just behind the VL – we’ll see where to send it when it gets there. By turn 15, the mortar fire and Sherman HE have panicked or broken a number of units, but haven’t actually caused that many casualties.

Turns 16-20: The big event in these turns is the loss of my Flame HT and my failure to take out the Sherman. On turn 17, I order my Flame HT forward from behind the VL to start flaming his troops. I know this will gain the attention of his Sherman, so I pull off a nice little move: I anticipate his Sherman’s move left to get LOS to my HT by moving the HT farther right, where he cannot get LOS to it with the Sherman. it works perfectly. He’s pretty cagey with his Sherman, keeping it pretty far back where I have no chance of getting it with a faust. I get a shreck into position to shoot at it by turn 18, but it takes 3 shots at about 100 yds. And fails to score a hit. Luck is not on my side. Furthermore, I spot his second armoured unit – the Badger - only AFTER the HT has moved forward to avoid the Sherman. The Badger is on the road on my Left Flank and I can tell it will be able to flame the open-topped HT next turn. Unfortunately, the HT is screwed – if I back it up, it will be in LOS to the Sherman, so I leave it where it is and have it continue to flame the nearby buildings to deny him a jump-off point to the VL. Unfortunately, in about 6 flame blasts over two turns, my Flamer ignites NOTHING on fire. It’s taken out early on turn 19 by his badger, which seems to ignite everything it comes near. This triple whammy of bad luck (missed shreck shots, failure to spot the badger until too late, and an impotent Flame HT) pretty much screws me over for the remainder of the battle. If any one of these things had gone my way, I’m pretty confident I could have pulled off a minor victory. That’s the way of this game, though – sometimes bad luck can ruin even a great plan. When you start off with just a decent plan, it takes even less. . . The one saving grace during these turns is that his Badger proceeds to ignite the 3 buildings around the VL closest to him, denying his troops the ability to enter the VL from that direction. I later learned that this pretty much ruined his assault plan – while my flamer was impotent, his seems to be a bit overzealous. At least bad luck swings both ways. In other action, he shifts his 3” barrage to my left flank, pinning down my troops there and keeping me from getting units close enough to the Sherman to get off a Faust shot. On turn 19, I also finally fully spot one of his infantry units when one of his squads rushes a building on my right flank where I have a squad hiding. Until this, I have no idea that I am facing elite troops.

Turns 20-25. The endgame plays out in a pretty interesting manner. He has very little infantry left – the attrition has taken it’s toll, and the easiest angle to the VL for him is denied by the actions of his own flamer, so he has to satisfy himself with running round with his Badger and his Sherman and trying to kill as many of my units as possible. As he is short infantry cover, though, he can’t be too aggressive with the armour for fear of fausts. I leave my one totally fresh platoon in the building at the back of the VL ready to ambush any of his forces that try to turn the corner and get into the VL buildings. He does send one infantry unit around the corner on the final turn – it is ripped to shreds in a fusillade of SMG fire. Unfortunately, his armour and a couple infantry and armour is close enough to the VL to throw it’s status into question, so that destroys any chance of my pulling out a victory.

The final score surprises me: With the half score adjustment, an 18-18 draw – I had managed to cause more casualties to his infantry than I thought. With the

Final thoughts: I later learned from DL that he made a nearly disastrous assumption in the beginning: He assumed that, since it was a meeting engagement, I would not start with units positioned on his side of the VL. Hence my initial success in catching his units in the open on the road. If I had been a little bit smarter about my initial setup, I could have made this presumption disastrous for him. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have split my units into half-squads in an effort to cover more ground. My initial objectives were to delay his advance so I could get my reinforcements in place. If he doesn’t bring his units up the road, I’ve already succeeded – infantry units moving through snowy woods move very slowly and tire quickly. I should have concentrated my attention on the road and kept the squads together. I would have had two full squads, plus maybe the LMG in on the initial ambush rather than just three half squads. In addition, I would have had a third squad in the fight by turn 3. This would have caused much heavier casualties to his lead platoon and probably left me in control of the heavy blockhouse on my right. I could then have tried to hold the blockhouse, which would probably cost me the lead platoon, but forced him to spend time and resources on assaulting that building, or pulled back and setup another ambush inside of it.

Even though I didn’t fully spot one of his units until turn 19, if I knew at the start of this scenario what I know now, I would have figured out that I was facing very high quality troops (i.e., crack or elite) much earlier. I’m not talking about command delay here – this biggest clue was the fact that his troops were very difficult to pin down. Even under heavy fire, they would keep moving or firing. If I had figured out the quality of his troops earlier, I would have played very differently. As noted above, I figured out I had a company of infantry in front of me pretty early on. If I had known it was an elite company, I would have known that he could either have more infantry, or some armour, but not both because of the high point cost of elite troops. Also, I would have played more to kill, rather that just pin down and panic his units. As noted, pinning Crack/Elite troops is extremely difficult – it’s probably almost impossible with just small arms fire.

Good fight, though. Hat’s off to DL for making a very good recovery from a poor start. I actually enjoyed the challenge of playing conscript troops. It definitely takes more careful planning and forethought.

Cheers,

YD

[SuperTed]

Originally posted by PawBroon:

I don't want to pull my Frenchness on you Ted but aren't 100+ soccers games a bit much for some foreign n00b?

I'm glad you're on your way to recovery and hope that you'll be able to kick balls in no time.

Pun intended BTW, don't yell at me...

PB,

Somebody has to keep soccer alive in this country and I'm doing all I can.

Thanks, I look forward to kicking some balls to. :eek:

[SuperTed]

Only 33 days until the first match of the season...

[ March 11, 2002, 11:25 PM: Message edited by: SuperTed ]

[SuperTed]

It's awfully quiet in here...

[Splash]

OK I'm ready to post my AAR for Give and Take

I was the Canucks and Dave was those mad old men.

Men who were something of a nightmare.

Where to begin...

It was a dark and snowy night of a type I should have been all too familiar with but alas no.

There was some confusion with HQ and misplaced plans were hatched. Flanking NE I made a last minute decision. Sometimes these choices are inspired and sometimes well...

I have been reflecting on a way to distinguish them from each other. Some are dash and some are dazzle. This was all dash.

Anyways one squad was entirely annihilated and they didn't even flinch. Proud boys! The rest of the Platoon A (P-A) seemed to just shrug it off and swung further east. If there was something nice about this it was that Old Man Defender (OMD) followed them and forgot about the front gates.

The first reinforcements' (P- arrival in the west was a BIG surprise. I snorted something or other at HQ for sure. I had hoped for the north ataround P-A start.

With P-A waaay east, weary and being sniped there appeared no hope of link up. Things weren't hopeless by any means--had I known 3 Cos. were in that there town-- I would however have lowered my expectations considerably.

OK -- no way P-A can come anywhere near into town (2 squads!) so their new assignment was to get as many OMD's to at least come at them. If OMD moved enough toward P-A it was additive for P-B/C because it took away from the front doors. To redeploy was long hard work!

Anyways the new boys humped down the road pronto (good thing those Germans plow their roads) and snuck into what should have been P-A's position for an assault on Large Heavy Building A (LHB-A) and P-C (arrived say) and got into the west for a nice look see straight down the 1st east west road and clear shots on LargeLightBuild-A.

The tank showed-- a fire fight started-- OMD ran - LLB-A was rubble and we were in LHB-A.

Cinch!

Badger shows! I try it for a solid right flank anchor near the church -- it's too much to expect--and the old boy gets decapitated and it's rendered useless and withdraws.

I should have withdrawn everything at this point and just held to LHB-A and called it a day but I

didn't.

By this time Dave smells blood.

Let's see what have I here. P-A is doing a good job! Looks like they have about a Co. of OMD's coming at them and they're holding! 1/2 of that however could be easily redeployed into the fray front and centre. Tepid is the word.

LHB-A is now completely empty of infantry except for CHQ and arty and there looks to be the above said 1/2 and at least another Co. ready to move in. The only thing holding it is a tank and now Arty for real. Dave tries an attack at LHB-A but OMD shrinks from the task.

P-B/C is unfazed but slowly beening whittled down in a complete hard right flank jab at the church but the German Infantry Markers (GIMps!) keep popping up and disappearing and basically I'm entirely ineffective.

Slowly I'm whittled down and I withdraw still holding LHB-A

Dave 78&*@# points and me 22

Thanks Dave -- it was brutal.

[ March 12, 2002, 06:58 PM: Message edited by: Splash ]

[Dave H]

Originally posted by Splash:

OK I'm ready to post my AAR for Give and Take

I was the Canucks and Dave was those mad old men.

Men who were something of a nightmare.

...

Thanks Dave -- it was brutal.

Somehow Splash makes this battle seem a lot easier than I recalled. I remember asking him when I sent him a turn if his men ever got upset about getting shot at. It seemed like I had a dozen squads shooting at one of his platoons and it was my guys turning and running!

Dave

And Splash, welcome back from vacation.

[ March 12, 2002, 08:58 PM: Message edited by: Dave H ]

[SuperTed]

My First Soccer in Over Nine Months AAR

My plan was to play goalkeeper for the first half of the first game to see how things went. Well, after playing two consecutive games, I think it's safe to say things went well!

Game 1

Despite allowing six goals, only one could be pinned on me. I played a ball poorly and allowed a player to score. The other five goals were the result of defensive breakdowns that culminated in point blank shots. Fortunately, this team's strength is offense and the final score was 13-6.

Game 2

After getting the first game out of the way, I was ready to rock and roll. This team plays a much better defense, making my job easier. Again, I allowed only one soft goal and the defense allowed the other one. With a strong performance on both ends of the field, we came away with a 9-2 victory!

The knee feels great! Of course the scrapes, bumps, and bruises are another story, but I'm not about to complain.

Thanks again to all the well wishers out there.

[Dave H]

Originally posted by SuperTed:

My First Soccer in Over Nine Months AAR

So your teams average 11 goals per game? This sounds more like lacrosse or water polo than soccer. You sure you know which sport you're playing? :confused:

Dave

[SuperTed]

Originally posted by Dave H:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by SuperTed:

My First Soccer in Over Nine Months AAR

So your teams average 11 goals per game? This sounds more like lacrosse or water polo than soccer. You sure you know which sport you're playing? :confused:

Dave</font>

[SuperTed]

Almost 24 hours between bumps! :eek: