TheVulture Posted November 7, 2011 Author Share Posted November 7, 2011 27 Minutes Left Orders On the right I give some more fine tuning hunt orders to the units scouring the forest for the missing ATG crew. They are getting close to the edge of the forest now, so contact is imminent. On the left I decide to delay the advance into the dairy for a turn to bring one of the pumas down to provide some 50mm HE and HMG support. My one qualm about this is that I can't remember how many guns the US 57mm ATG platoon has. If there is a fourth gun, I'd expect it to be somewhere at the back of the map behind the dairy, somewhere near 1st platoon. In which case it will get a lovely flank shot on the puma as it closes in on the dairy. I'm relying on speed (or the absence of the gun) to save the day. Action There is a tense silence as the turn evolves. I watch the puma roll down the hill and speed into the flat ground where the risk is. I hear a shot. Oh pants! Wait, that wasn't the sound of an ATG. The puma reaches the relative safety of the dairy unscathed. So, what was that shot. Watching the replay again, I see: I've found the routed ATG crew, as they give themselves away with rifle fire at the puma. (Memo to self: button up the puma commanders - why risk an unlucky casualty). Notice how one rifle round seems to have pentrated straight through the puma. Weird. As hoped, the nearest infantry squad spot the muzzle flashes and respond with heavy fire. The commander naturally buttons up on his own initiative, apparently having more sense than I do. At the end of the turn, the puma down by the dairy is now nicely positioned to help 3rd platoon advance into the dairy. Things will all be decided in the next few minutes. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVulture Posted November 7, 2011 Author Share Posted November 7, 2011 Casualties so far? I'm down 15 men, 1 panther, 1 puma so far. (4 of the men were the puma crew). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVulture Posted November 8, 2011 Author Share Posted November 8, 2011 26 Minutes Left Orders I decide to shift the puma on the left flank forward a bit (and later realise I forgot to button the damned thing). The rear-most squad of 3rd platoon will leap-frog past the point into the nearest building. I have the maximum firepower waiting in overwatch, but can't do much about the fact that any Americans who spot my moving squad will get the first shot. (It didn't occur to me at the time to pop smoke from the car to get units across the gap, but thinking about it now I'm not sure it would be the best strategy anyway; the brief exposure might cause a unit to expose itself harmlessly and allow it to be dealt with before any of my units are really exposed, while using smoke might get me into the building safely but then suddenly involed in an all out firefight with more prolonged exposure when the smoke clears). On the right, the puma and some of the infantry shift to deal with the now-spotted US units. The rest of the platoon will advance closer to the edge of the woods to get line of sight to the dairy area. Action The puma advancing on the ATG crew soon spot three of them. The combination of fire from a close-up vehicle from the front and a nearby squad from the side causes one man to surrender and the other two just turn and run. Despite being chased by plenty of firepower they make it to a gap in the hedge outside the trees alive, and vanish from sight. A lone man from an infantry squad follows them. He's run a long way already. Private Pheidippides ends up cowering down at the side of the hedge. Down at the dairy, the squad make haste for the house. As they are nearly there a burst of automatic fire pings out, although it is a fair way off target. Unfortunately none of my overwatching units spot the shooter, but there are precious few places it could have come from. I have a choice of two windows to shoot at basically, and three units to do the shooting. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVulture Posted November 8, 2011 Author Share Posted November 8, 2011 25 Minutes Left Orders I figure that the shots that came at my squad advancing in to the dairy can only have come from two places, so I set the puma to area fire on one of those, and one of 3rd platoon's squads behind the bocage area firing at the other. I vacillate for a while between 'target' and 'target light' for the infantry squad, since I am cautious about blowing all their panzershreck rounds and one-shot panzerfausts against a possibly unoccupied building. In the end what sways me is the fact that last time through this campaign I was running much lower on men than on ammunition, so I decide overkill is the way to go if it means a bigger impact on any defenders now, and fewer casualties for me when I go in to hunt them down. The last squad from 3rd platoon will use this fire to cover their move to the house to join the lead 3rd platoon squad; these two will then form a fire base for the next squad to advance further. On the right I there isn't much to do; one squad will move up to the bocage to get the surender of the cowering American and see if it can spot the fleeing ATG crew and maybe shoot them. Action The area fire commands duly rain hell and fury upon the unsuspecting cattle pens, with no visible reaction or effect, while the moving squad reach the house in safety. Preasumably that means I hit the right area, since otherwise some kind of return fire would have been very likely. Watching all those shreck rounds taking firing off one after the other is painful though. On the right a few stragglers from the fleeing units are found amongst the trees - three in all - and one American is killed by the hedge. Through the bocage I spot the two surviving men from the ATG crew, and they are also quick to surrender. The squad by the bocage also spot a unit hiding behind a hedge down by the dairy and fire off a few shots, but mostly succeed in hitting one of the buildings. (Sorry for the lack of screenshots BTW - technical error for this turn. I.e. I hadn't lauched FRAPS and didn't notice until I was in the orders phase of the next turn...) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVulture Posted November 8, 2011 Author Share Posted November 8, 2011 24 Minutes Left Orders One the right side, 1st platoon deploy along the edges of the wood and bocage ready to engage any enemy units seen. The puma on that side is going to advance towards the dairy complex to trap the Americans between two puma cars, and to catch any Americans driven out this side by 3rd platoon on the other On the left, the two squads in the side house will spread out to get a maximum of rifles pointing into the dairy area, and the puma will advance to try and provoke more reactions. The area fire of last turn is cancelled. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVulture Posted November 8, 2011 Author Share Posted November 8, 2011 Action Well, the puma on the left does indeed draw a response, as a rifle grenade whistles past. Thankfully it both misses the puma and falls short of the bocage sheltering the rest of 3rd platoon. The squad that fired it then open up with rifles at the puma, and give my men something to shoot at. Things go badly for the defenders. Two are killed that I can see. One man readies another rifle grenade. He doesn't get to fire it though. The incoming fire only gets heavier, and the surviving men duck for cover and start trying to get away. On the right side, the American team out in the open decide that taking fire from behind is indicative that their position isn't the best, and decide to relocate to the nearest buildings. Ironically another team has decided that being in a building isn't safe, and run for the cover of the hedge that their colleagues have just vacated (red arrow is the team fleeing to the hedge; green arrow was the team that just fled from the hedge). This team would seem to have been the one that first fired at 3rd platoon and got the area fire in reponse; the area fire apparently was effective enough to rout the defender. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankster65 Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 What a great read! Thanks for posting this. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVulture Posted November 9, 2011 Author Share Posted November 9, 2011 23 Minutes Left Orders The trailing squad of 3rd platoon will head for the cattle pens. I've a fair idea where all nine of the enemy teams from their platoon are. I haven't seen the HQ yet, but I'd have thought it would be somewhere where at the very least it could keep the units at the front of the dairy in command range. So I don't think there will be anyone firing at my moving squad. I'll nudge the puma on this side forwards a little just to improve its field of fire. On the right, a squad from 1st platoon will run down to the edge of the second set of buildings. My original plan was to attack the main dairy farm building with this platoon. Neither building is an attractive prospect, since they have ground floow rooms with no windows, which tend to mean running in through the door and getting shot, as happened with trying to clear the factory. But one squad has just come running in to this other set of buildings in a panicked state. If I kick down the door now and charge in, that squad at least will probably run away immediately, whereas if I come to this building later, they might have rallied a bit and add to the defence. My real goal is to try and trigger a surrender without having to force a way in to too many buildings. (To be honest, I could probably cease fire now, get a victory, and move on to the next mission. But then I could probably have hit cease fire on turn 1 and moved on to the next mission. The point is to play the game, and for me, that means playing it through to the time limit or auto-surrender). Which is why I am attacking the cattle pens rather than the main dairy, since I can put useful support fire on to those buildings. Anyway, back to the building in question. The two teams defending it have dropped away from the windows, and the puma on that side should draw the fire form any unsuppressed defenders (indeed, they were taking small arms fire from somewhere at the end of last turn). That side has the rest of 1st platoon in overwatch in the tree line. And of course 2nd platoon, the HMGs and the PSW 234/1s are also overwatching further back at the houses. The last movement order you might notice (ending where the 3rd platoon squad are moving from) are a team of engineers I am bring up (half way in their halftrack, then on foor) in case I need to blast a way in. They should take 2-3 turns to get here. Action On the right, the puma taking fire spots its antagonist: the US platoon HQ lurking in one of the corner buildings. It will surprise no-one that the puma wins this particular duel, causing one causalty and routing the other two men in the unit. 1st platoon's advancing squad does get a little reaction as some fire comes from the ground floor of the buildings. Where there are no windows. Somehow the soldier is firing through the gap between the buildings. It would be an impressive trick if the didn't immediately call down the fury of two platoons and several vehicles on his head, including a panzershreck round. More men flee from the cattle pens as my squad enter those buildings. Although they make the possibly bad decision to run past a puma, it is too busy shooting at their platoon HQ to bother about them. For now. On the left, 3rd platoon does get a squad into the cattle pens without incident. The only action of note is that the puma apparently sees some movement in one of the buildings behind it, because despite the lack of a confirmed contact, the turret rotates to point at the end tower of the dairy. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVulture Posted November 9, 2011 Author Share Posted November 9, 2011 22 Minutes Left Orders With some US troops having exposed themselves in the right side building last turn and been fired on, I alter my plans slightly and send my men straight in rather than waiting outside for a second squad to come and join them. I figure that the suppressive and morale effects make a direct entrance now safer than waiting another turn or two. I also shift the position of the puma to go and greet the men fleeing from the dairy and hiding behind the bocage. On the other side of the dairy, I move a second squad from 3rd platoon into the cattle pens; these two squads will then move along the length of the building on different floors to make sure it is clear. The puma on this side will reverse to a better position to cover the main building and the movement seen in the tower. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVulture Posted November 9, 2011 Author Share Posted November 9, 2011 Action My hunch about it being a good time to kick in the door is correct: the lead men charge in just in time to see a man trying to escape out the back. The body in the corner suggests that my overwatch fire did manage to hit something. The running man is hit, and as my men secure the room another American is spotted lurking in the corner and shot. Then, inexplicably, one of the squad's LMG gunners decides to go take a piss. The rest of his colleagues are more concerned about other matters. A second man fleeing the building is seen, but he manages to drop from sight into the safety of long grass before he is hit. Some more troops that seemingly were routed from the building earlier bravely try to provide a bit of covering fire to help him get away. They only fire off a few shots, and then are off and running again before any of my men can return fire. The puma meanwhile rolls up to the bocage and finds four men cowering there from two different teams. Some MG and 50mm fire takes care of them quite quickly. One poor soul tried to surrender before being shot. I guess the puma gunner heard about the puma being lost to the mines and was a bit grumpy. The fact that two teams have routed from the cattle pens to this position suggests that the building is now undefended, but I'll still move through it cautiously anyway. The only actual action at that end of the farm is the movement of sound contacts within the main building. Apparently the men in there are running around like headless chickens. With two buildings likely having been cleared and their occupiers flushed out into the open, I'm going to take the time to hunt them all down before dealing with the main building. The hope is that I can trigger an auto-surrender before I have to risk the extra casualties. Just in case though, the engineer team have no arrived in the area and can blow an extra entrance for me whenever I need it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVulture Posted November 9, 2011 Author Share Posted November 9, 2011 21 Minutes Left Orders With all ground between my overwatching positions and the dairy now essentially secure, the overwatch units can start to move up. 1st platoon will move up to the right side building, and the nearest squad will enter the building to ensure that is is completely emptied of enemy units. Meanwhile 2nd platoon will start to move out from the fire base in the private houses; the first two squads will move down to the dairy front door and wait there until I am ready to move in. In the cattle pens, 3rd platoon will cautiously sweep through the building. There may be one or two pinned men lurking in there, but I expect the building to be empty now. The puma on the right side, having dealt with the men visible by the hedge, is going to rumble around behind the right hand building to flush out the various routed units that are hiding in the grass. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVulture Posted November 9, 2011 Author Share Posted November 9, 2011 Action The puma does a good job of finding the hiding enemy, and makes liberal use of its guns to persuade them to give up. Some of them are unfortunately killed by the delivery mechanism of the 'surrender' message. 2nd platoon advance on the front of the dairy. Suddenly the door flies open, and some men rush out. The enemy platoon HQ come sprinting out in a blind panic. Most of the overwatch spot them instantly and a hellish salvo of fire is unleashed. Curiously, notice in the picture that the enemy unit is selected, and the lead squad advancing on them is not highlighted - they haven't spotted the man they are virtually tripping over. Well, sometimes people get distracted. I once rode a bicycle into the back of a stationary car... To no-one's surprise, the HQ unit is quickly killed. The nearest squad never spotted him, and are left wondering why the hell all their comrades are shooting at them. Oddly the only man from the team to take cover and start crawling is the panzershreck bearer, who was far enough back that he was the only man that none of the shots went anywhere near. The cattle pens crew find the some bodies in the hay loft, and also spot the rest of the men routed from that block down by the bocage (the puma having evidently failed to notice them). They are busy trying to surrender. That's the cattle pens confirmed clear as well. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVulture Posted November 9, 2011 Author Share Posted November 9, 2011 Surrender This turns out to be enough to trigger the auto surrender. Looking around the battlefield I find three units behind the right building trying to surrender (one of which I hadn't even spotted - although they must have been one of the units that was driven out by the first firefight back when I was setting up the start of the dairy attack). The proximity of the puma seems to have been enough to cause them all to lose their nerve. The few men out by the bocage behind thecattle pens are also surrendering. Inside the dairy building itself are a few exhausted, panicked units that seem to have spent the last five minutes running from one end of the building to the other and back again in an attempt to get away from the forces which are all around them. The final score is: I've lost 15 men, 1 panther and 1 puma. 11 casualties are from my infantry platoons (each is 36 men at full strength), so that is 10% of my combat force (11 / 108 men, 1 / 10 tanks). Not great, but better than before. kills by unit: 1st platoon 15 men killed, 6 prisoners 2nd platoon 23 men and 1 57mm ATG killed, 6 prisoners 3rd platoon 8 men killed HMG platoon 4 men killed, 2 prisoners Pumas: 12 men killed, 3 prisoners Panthers: 5 men and 1 57mm ATG killed My one mortar mission on the foxholes presumably killed 4 men - since adding up all my units kills leaves me 4 short of the total enemy causalties. I'm quite happy with the overall performance. I'm certainly pleased that I managed not to lose any more men clearing the dairy, although the factory area did take a heavy toll. On the whole this is a fairly easy mission, easing you in to the campaign gently. My main aim was to keep most of my tanks alive, and I did a better job this time around, so I'm content. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BletchleyGeek Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 Surrender I'm quite happy with the overall performance. I'm certainly pleased that I managed not to lose any more men clearing the dairy, although the factory area did take a heavy toll. On the whole this is a fairly easy mission, easing you in to the campaign gently. My main aim was to keep most of my tanks alive, and I did a better job this time around, so I'm content. Congratulations, both for a neat victory and an excellent AAR! Looking forward to the next installment. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 Since this whole thread is a *SPOILER* I hope you don't mind me adding that in every scenario I played of this campaign the US get 500 points, the US surrender, and the victorious Germans get a Tactical Victory - regardless of losses/performance etc. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankster65 Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 Great job! Well done tactically and well written. Was a joy to read. Hope you do more. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVulture Posted November 9, 2011 Author Share Posted November 9, 2011 Great job! Well done tactically and well written. Was a joy to read. Hope you do more. Glad people are enjoying it. I intend to carry on through the campaign, until real life or the release of the next module interrupt me 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 Yes, your AAR was great. Hope more people play the Hoffnung campaign as it has a good variety of scenarios. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c3k Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 Okay, now that I've read your outstanding AAR, I'm going to have to give this a spin. Thanks! Ken 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poesel Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 Thanks for writing this! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mies Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 Action ... Well, sometimes people get distracted. I once rode a bicycle into the back of a stationary car... ... I managed to do that as well once ;-) But thanks, I enjoyed reading this! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVulture Posted November 10, 2011 Author Share Posted November 10, 2011 After a relatively successful first mission, I am presented with a choice for how to proceed. There are two routes ahead; one through the village of Brouains, and one along a road through a forest. Scouts testing out both routes took small arms fire. The first choice is whether to split my forces to open both routes, or to concentrate my forces along a single route. I opt for the single route method, since I am always a fan of amassing as much force as possible in one place and focussing my efforts. The next choice is whether to advance on the village route or the forest route. Since I took the forest path on my first play through, I decide to try the road through Brouains instead. Mission 2 : Going To Town As a result of concentrating my forces, I have the units from the previous mission plus a second company of panzergrenadier infantry. I also have access to a 105mm artillery battery in addition to my companies' 81mm mortars. It is foggy, so no enemy air power is expected, but information about the enemy is lacking except that it is an infantry force. I start with my recon PSW 234 cars on the map, and the engineer squad. The first company plus the panther tanks will arrive in 5 minutes. The second company with the Pz IV tanks will turn up in 20 minutes. I have 70 minutes to take contol of Brouains. A first glance at the map reveals good defensive terrain. The village is on the rear slope of a low hill. Most of the approaches are bare, open fields. On the curving hill it means that there are plenty of exposed approaches where it will be hard to get any useful overwatch in to play. On the other hand, the size of the map, combined with the likely size of the defending force, means that it is unlikely that the main defensive screen can be in those positions: they simply have too much map to cover and would have to spread their forces too thinly. So I expect the bulk of the defence to be in the village itself, with only a thin screen of observation posts further forwards (and since the AI can't make any intelligent use of positions forward of the main line of resistance, I don't actually expect any resistance until I hit the edge of the town, but will of course be a bit more cautious than that). There is a fair amount of bocage in the centre of the map which will restrict vehicle movement. I will have my engineers with their 8 demo charges, so the number of hedges I can breach for vehicles is limited. Plus I want to keep my tanks on roads where possible due to the infernal bogging problems in this campaign. There are three roads that lead in to town. On the west side (red arrow) there are two roads into the village, on either side of a large ploughed earth field. This approach route is rather more exposed than I am comfortable with, although it would make dropping artillery on enemy positions quite easy ocne they are located. The southern road (yellow arrow) comes in over the crest of a hill, and the terrain around there consists of much shorter lines of sight. I will have to breach the bocage to get access to the road for my vehicles, which could become something of a bogging hazard, but I like this route for getting my infantry moving around in relative safety. After a lot of wavering, and dithering around, I settle on a plan of approach on the southern route. I'm not expecting any AT guns - or anything other than snipers - until I get into the bocage, so I am prepared to scout with my recon cars to see if they get shot at. I'm gambling that they aren't going to run into anything that can kill them, basically. The opening series of moves is to send one recon car up to the road area and park it there (red arrow in the picture below). This area looks to be shielded from just about everywhere by the elevation changes. If that turns out to be safe, then the rest of the recon cars will move up and fan out into hull-down positions to view the surrounding countryside (red wavy line). If things remain quiet, then the engineer half tracks will move into the perimeter the recon cars have established and set about blowing a hole in the bocage to access the road. After that I expect to have my first battle group on the map. The tanks are ultimately going to have to advance up the road (yellow arrow). The infantry are going to have to scout out the routes either side of the road to determine where the enemy are (green arrows). My vague intention right now is for the recon crews to dismount and scout the right side of the road, while an infantry platoon scouts the left side, more directly toward the town. What happens after that depends entirely on where we first bump into the defence. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noxnoctum Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Where can I get this campaign? I don't see it in the repository. Nice aar btw. Fun to read! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Field Marshal Blücher Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Where can I get this campaign? I don't see it in the repository. Nice aar btw. Fun to read! http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=314&func=fileinfo&id=1572 It's there. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noxnoctum Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Ah, thanks, no wonder I didn't guess it would start with "Campaign: ...." 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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