My First Quick Battle

[Pak40]

My First Quick Battle: small battle, armor only, automatic chosen forces for both sides.

My forces:

M10 x 4

M8 x 4

1 x M4A3 75mm

2 or 3 scout cars

2 half tracks with HQs

1 x 81mm spotter

My orders are to Assault a farm and take it over.

I use my HQ and spotter to probe the hedgerows. It pays off, and I spot 2 Marder IIIs very close to each other behind a stone wall. After getting the spotter in position, I call in a medium barrage. While waiting for the barrage I position M10s and M8s and Sherman at various flanking points to the right and straight on. I plan to shoot them through the gaps in the hedgerows once the barrage is about finished. Even if the mortars don't get them, then they should be pretty stunned and wont put up much of a fight.

Before the barrage falls I spot a cat (early panther) not far away from the Marders but not close enough for the barrage to do any damage. Finally the barrage falls and the fire is accurate and deadly. It turns out that there was also a Stug III next to the Marders - triple bonus! At the end of the barrage, I press my vehicles forward through the gaps. The Marders and Stug don't respond to my vehicles who take some pop shots at them because we can't tell if they're dead or not. The Panther is quick to respond. It takes out an M10 pressing the right flank, then swings the barrel closer to the middle where I have an M10 rhino shoot through a hedge to try to ambush it. Another M10 down in flames. A couple of turns later the Sherman is also toast. I've scored a couple of hits on the cat but it has a tough hide.

I use my scout cars and M8s to get closer to the farm and distract the cat while my remaining M10s close in for the kill. The Panther takes a couple of more his on the gun but he fires back to let us know that it still works. However, one of the hits is a partial penetration that rattles his crew. He pops copious amounts of smoke and reverses behind the homestead at the farm.

I close in with all my vehicles that have a shot of killing the cat. A few turns are spent closing in carefully while the smoke slowly drifts and dissipates. However, when I spring the final trap and close in the last 100 meters with all my vehicles the cat is nowhere to be found! It simply has vanished, using the smoke to stealthily back away. My objective is secure but I can't let the Panther get away after he's killed several of my armored units. He must be hiding behind one of the two farm buildings. I decide to use an M8 as a scout to find the cat. The M8 finds another Marder but it's already been KO'd, I'm not sure how. I don't remember seeing it before. It's not long before an AP round rips through my M8. The cat had somehow moved behind the second farm without me seeing it. It backs up some more but it's in full view of my two remaining M8s. Not the best choice to kill a cat, so I order my M10 to flank through a gap in the hedgerows to help out. The M8s get at least a couple of hits with HEAT ammo and when my M10 finally is in position to get a flank shot, the game is over - Sgt Biner in his M8 gets credit for taking out the Panther with a HEAT round at over 100 meters distance.

Pure joy! Thanks BFC.

[Battlefront.com]

Glad we could be of assistance

Steve

[Wiggum]

Did you choose the enemys by yourselfe ?

If you used automatic, will there always be "regular" units with "normal" motivation and "fitness" ?

So if you choose automatic for the enemy then you always know that there will be no elite fomations or green troops fighting in this battle... ?

[Salkin]

So WEGO is the prefered method Pak40.

Did you play CMSF or did you just resurface for CMBFN ?

Oh , and a nice little AAR !

//Salkin

[Pak40]

I just chose automatic but I'm not sure about the quality of troops. I can't remember if I set that or not.

Yes I prefer WEGO although this action was small enough that I could have played it real time. I played only a little bit of CMSF but never really got hang of the camera controls, so I'm still learning in that regard, which is one reason why I still prefer WEGO. Glad you liked the AAR. I had not intended on writing anything but the Panther pull such a disappearing act that I felt I had to share it.

[Salkin]

I'ts great with AAR:s this early ....it's a great way to hear what people think of the game and how the game plays.

A good AAR usually equals an excited gamer which equals a good game .

I'm really looking forward to some youtube commentary of a multiplayer game.

//Salkin

[Manx]

The great thing about CMx2 is that we have both WEGO and RT. I played CMSF only in RT mode, so at the moment i'm more comfortable playing CMBN that way. I intend to spend time relearning my tactics and get back into WEGO again since i really enjoyed playing all the CMx1 series.

In the end i guess the size of the battles will determine which method i use. I like to nanny my units and a large RT battle would make it difficult to do that.

[Salkin]

I just love the tension of that first movie when you hear a vehicle rumbling on the horizon.

//Salkin