Die Letzte Hoffnung - a campaign DAR

[TheVulture]

70 to 60 Minutes Left

The only time my plans every work without a hitch is when the enemy are obligingly absent. So I succesfully create a forward deployment area with my recon cars, who succeed in keeping the engineers safe from the nobody at all who are attacking them. The high point of the action in the first five minutes is probably this:

Yup. A squad of engineers climb out of their halftrack. The recon cars have slowly nudged out to expand the safe area in preparation for the arrival of the main force.

After five minutes, 1st Kompanie and the panthers arrive. I remember to do a quick ammo check and it seems like everyone has topped up their ammo supplies apart from one squad from 3rd platoon. Since they are the platoon mounted in trucks, I quickly get them a few extra cases of bullets. Then everyone moves out, giving us more exciting, all-action screenshots of <gasp> lorries in convoy

Since 3rd platoon arrive mounted in trucks, I nominate them to lead the main advance, since they can get to the deployment area first. The HMG platoon will go with them to keep them company. The other two platoons will follow behind on foot. The panthers will wait in reserve.

Nine minutes in, this is the situation:

3rd platoon have reached the first line of bocage and deployed along it. Engineers have created an extra breach (there was a natural one further to the left, but I wanted quicker access, just in case).

3rd platoon continue the advance by the time honoured technique of sending a lone team forward to see what shoots at them. So far, nothing has. Then the rest of the platoon move up to congratulate the suckers on a job well done, and the cycle repeats itself.

[TheVulture]

The advance continues with mechanical precision for another few minutes (yup, still no contact), so skipping ahead until:

56 Minutes Left

Orders

3rd platoon are getting in to the buildings on the edge of the village. The platoon as a whole are sidling forward like a well-armed amoeba finding the path of least resistance (and best cover). This turn the rear squad is leap-frogging to the front edge of a field, while two squads and an HMG are in overwatch.

Action

This advance finally generates some action, and a few shots ring out at the advancing soldiers. The point platoon spot where the shots came from; the top floor of a building a little further down the hill. The first response is from the panzershreck.

A nice hit right on target. This draws the ire of a nearby HMG. Fortunately my overwatch does its job and quickly spots the enemy unit and returns fire. No casualties on either side that I can see.

And here's a nice overhead shot to show the positions of the units involved.

Meanwhile one of the PSW 234/1 cars has been cautiously checking out the road route, while a dismounted puma crew has checked out the field to the right to make sure there are no unpleasant surprises waiting. I'm fairly sure that the house right by the point squad on 3rd platoon is empty (since no-one has shot out at my men from very short range). So my PSW 234 feels relatively safe advancing to a hull down position relative to the top floor (and besides, as we all know, precious few infantry AT weapons can be fired indoors).

So, first contact has been made. I don't seem to have wandered into a kill zone, since only two units are firing at me (an HMG and a single 5 man team), so I seem to have found a decent route in to the village for my infantry. Now I need to establish 3rd platoon in good positions (being cautious for incoming mortars) and start to move the follow up platoons through them to fan out into the village. My general plan now is to establish a safe zone in the village with 1st company, which will enable me to bring my tanks into the village, and then 2nd company (which will turn up soon) will take over the advance from the safe area to destory the enemy resistance.

[TheVulture]

55 Minutes Left

Orders

One of my lead squads is hunkering down behind a hedge, but unable to see any of the enemy contacts from their position. I decide to advance them to a nearby house. One of the HMGs is also going to move up to the front hedge and deploy there - I'm not sure they are going to be able to see any targets from there though. I also resposition the platoon HQ to keep the front squads in comamnd.

Action

The enemy HMG rakes the house that my overwatch squad are in. One man is hit. And then the fateful sound of a rifle grenade firing comes from the direction of the HMG, and a second or two later.

A total of 7 men drop - 6 from the infantry squad and 1 from the HMG team that was just running into the house. That's about as bad a start as I could have had, really. The infantry team I engaged last turn continue to hold their position and fight. Apparently these Americans are more accurate and somewhat tougher mentally than the rabble I defeated in the last mission.

At the end of the turn, the redeployment of my forward units is almost complete. I am slightly concerned about creating a tempting mortar target with a line of men behind the hedge, so will be looking to break that up soon. The follow up platoons are close behind; 1st platoon could reach this area next turn if I rushed them, and 2nd platoon one turn after that, although that would leave things rather crowded.

I am going to have to be a little less cautious with my armour I think. The advance into that house has revealed no-one willing to shoot at my men as they crossed the open ground, despite having eyes watching the area.

The first of my panthers has crossed the bocage breach on to the road and can start to move up. The PSW 234/1 car visible in the picture will advance first and hope not to die, and then I can begin to bring the panthers up to where 3rd platoon are. Getting through the bocage breach is the choke point, since they have to go slowly though there, but I think I can get two tanks through per turn.

[ss11955]

Am single player---playing vs. Computer various LISTED campaigns--Courage and Fortitude,--Devon,--Panzer Marsch---Task Force Raff--- and the LAST LISTED campaign-Route to Montebourg . ----Tech Ignorant---What is a "DAR" ---Where is Campaign "Die Letzte Hoffnung"? This game is great but what am i missing ???????? Jim

[TheVulture]

DAR = During Action Report. like an AAR (After Action Report - military term I believe) but written as I go along rather than after the mission is finished.

This campaign isn't suplied with the game, but you can downlaod it from the repository via this link:

http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=314&func=fileinfo&id=1572

[Erwin]

Great DAR, but am I the only one who sees only blacked out images with some shadowy colored stuff in there someplace?

I recall when I played any night battles I had to fiddle with my nVidia controls to get a version of daylight just to play.

[Medex]

Yeah its pretty dark. If it could be lightened up a bit that would be cool.

[TheVulture]

54 Minutes Left

Orders

3rd platoon will continue to deploy to try and dispose of the minor annoyances we have found so far. The lead squad in the house will split and move to different floors to avoid overcrowing in case of rifle grenades (and to get more eyes on targets). The platoon HQ will advance with an HMG team to a nearby house to engage the same targets. The other HMG and the HMQ platoon HQ will move down to the corner of the field where they can also target the enemy team.

Meanwhile I will push my puma out to the right where I suspect it will be safe to see what happens, and move the lead panther up on the road to close behind my forward position. The other platoons of the company will continue to move forwards ready to move in to the battle once the situation becomes more clear.

[TheVulture]

Action

The panther rolls down the road, and to my surprise spots the enemy team which must be barely visible over the top of a hedge.

A few bursts of MG fire lead the way, and then the main gun barrel turns and depresses and unleashes hell.

You'd have thought I have learned from the demo that tanks have a distressing tendency to detonate HE shells on intervening hedges, usually ones that have my troops next to them. I'd taken to being very cautious about putting men next to hedges between tanks and their targets, but hadn't been paying enough attention here. The good news is that while the four nearby men take minor injuries and ruptured ear drums, no-one is seriously hurt or killed.

Elsewhere, as my lead squad disperse throughout their house, their is the ominous sound of a heavy gun firing and an explosion in the road nearby. The source is quickly identified as a 57mm ATG at the end of the lane, in a nicely keyhole position to shoot up the road to my area. An infantry team nearby also reveal themselves as they open fire on my HQ, killing the radio operator.

The return fire is quite effective, killing one of the men and stopping the ATG from firing again too quickly. The ATG itself is in a very strong position; keyholed by hedges, behind a wall, but with an excellent line of sight at my lead troops.

Viewing the position and orientation of the units seen so far, here is what I see:

The yellow lines are the obvious routes of advance (i.e. the only ones that allow vehicle access without having to breach numerous bocage rows - without enough engineers to open a proper route). Realistically, the two arrows in the bottom left end up having to come up the south road where I am now anyway. While those bottom left approaches have obvious ambush positions, they may actually be safe since all attacks end up being funneled down the south route with its keyholed ATG. My men do seem to have wandered to the edge of some kind of kill zone though. The defence might be based around the church - since an attack from the northwest (top left corner) is also a viable route - in which case a strongpoint defence centred somewhere around the church (green cross) is conceivable. There are other defensive options though, such as a dual kill-sack defence, in a concave arc around each of the obvious approaches.

One advantage of doing an AAR is that I am forced to stop and write between turns. Sometimes this leads to me dreaming up rationalisations for what I've just done. Other times, like now, describing the situation makes me see it in a new way. If I'd kept on playing, I'm certain I would have been sucked in to trying to get my lead platoon in to the fight with the units I can see, and dragging my other units in piecemeal as they get into the area. I'm not sure how well that would have gone. And besides, my original plan wasn't for my units to charge headlong in to trouble. It was merely to find out where the enemy were and establish a safe area where I can set up my main attack with the second company. And a good dictum is to attack where the enemy isn't, rather than finding out where they are and marching my men headlong towards them.

So, rather than throwing more men in to the fray in an impromptu battle on the enemys terms, I am going to try and break contact with my forward troops. 3rd platoon will stay essentially where they are but get into positions out of combat. 1st platoon behind the, will fan out to the left vaguely towards the machine gun and gently probe in that direction. 2nd platoon at the back will branch out to the right and see how far they can go before bumping in to the enemy. I want to find out more about how the enemy are deployed and where any flakns might be.

[TheVulture]

Yeah its pretty dark. If it could be lightened up a bit that would be cool.

I'l look in to playing around with the brightness curves of newer screenshots, but there are a few more queued up and already uploaded that are still quite dark.

[TheVulture]

53 Minutes Left

Orders

With my new, hopefully improved plan (actually, returning to the original plan), I reposition my engaged units to break line of sight with the enemy. The platoon HQ gets a covered arc to point them out the back of the house they are in. The HMG moving up with them will stop in the shadow of the house rather than going in. The point squad in the house gets a fast move out the back door, hopefully before the ATG gets a round on target. The other engaged units that can only see the single American team on the right will reposition to get out the way of the tank, but will continue to engage the enemy. The panther will join them - it appears I can engage that one team in isolation, and there seems no reason not to.

Behind them 1st platoon head for the corner of the field near the HMG, with a team engineers coming up from the rear to create a passsageway through the bocage there. I worry about the possibility of mines in the open strip of ground that leads from the field that is my assembly area, to the road. It is such an obvious route of advance that it just begs to have a belt of mines or an ATG covering it. But then, the road I actually came along was a perfect place for some obstacles to block the road, and they weren't there.

Action

My concerns about the ATG targetting the point squad prove to be well founded. Although they quickly turn to run out the back of the house, the ATG crew are quicker on the draw and get a shot on target.

The only positive is that just a single man is hit. But that is already the 9th casualty of the fight. I think I need to start letting the tanks do more of the work now. Speaking of which, the lead panther continues to provide most of the turn's combat, as it rakes the enemy team with MG fire, assisted by the nearby HMG team.

Apparently the gunner has decided that there is too much hedge in the way and leaves the main gun alone for now. I don't see any effect of all the MG fire on the enemy unit, but hopefully it is doing something.

1st platoon advance to the corner of the field without trouble, and the engineer team is on the way.

It feels like I've stopped following the enemy's plan at least. For the last few turns each move I've made in response to the enemy has lead to being engaged by more units. I don't want to play that game. Half the battle here is going to be finding the discipline to fight on my own terms.

[TheVulture]

52 Minutes Left

Orders

The orders don't change much from last turn, except adding a few extra moves to stick with the plan outlined a few turns back. 2nd platoon are up to the combat area and are going to start moving out to the right to look for the enemy flank. And I'm going to move a forward observer up to the house that can see the ATG to get some mortars on the area. I also continue to move my panthers toward the combat area. the one pather that is already engaged will move further to the left to see if it can find a position to fire on the annoying enemy team with its main gun.

Action

A relatively quiet turn (at last). 1st platoon are just starting their move, and the foward squad is just getting to its first destination as the turn ends.

Most of my combat forces are now in the right area, with a few minutes left to probe around before my second group arrive.

The only action of the turn is when my front panther is fired on by the American machine gun (which on closer inspection turns out to be an MMG, not an HMG). There is a brief inconclusive duel.

7.92mm MG rounds don't do much to a panther. Bocage makes for good cover against panther main gun rounds. But the return fire slacks off - large caliber HE explosions aren't much fun to be near even if they aren't immediately fatal. Beyond that nothing much happens. Combat succesfully disengaged for now.

While I could roll a tank out to kill the ATG, which being a 57mm has a pretty poor chance of hurting a panther, you might just remember that I lost one to a 57mm ATG in the first mission. And there may be other surprises. So why risk it when I can get the FO there and drop mortars on their heads.

[TheVulture]

51 Minutes

Orders

The orders this turn are pretty much unchanged. The next squad of 1st platoon will move out to the right. Everyone else stays where they are, waiting for the engineers or the forward observer to arrive and do their stuff.

Action

That American team in the house are pretty persistent (and pretty bullet-resistant too it seems). They pop up once again, but the return fire this turn is even greater, since a full platoon, an HMG and two panthers spot them the moment they fire.

I finally see one of the pesky GIs go down. They are definitely a much tougher bunch than any of the units I came across in the first mission.

Towards the end of the turn, the FO has quietly made his way in to a house and had time to look around a bit. Other units have also had time to keep their eyes open, and spotted a second ATG down by the church, facing this way.

The FO can only see the front-most of the guns. I could probably plot a fire mission that would cover the second gun, but I'm in no rush to take it out and can afford to wait for the first mission to arrive and move my FO to then target the second gun.

1st platoon continue their advance on the building complex on the right. So far there has been no sign of any defence over here, which is about what I was expecting.

[Broadsword56]

Thanks for posting this!

Just a suggestion: You really should consider trying Vein's Tracers mod -- they look fantastic at night and are huge improvements over the "ray gun" tracer appearance in the vanilla game (which I can barely stand to look at anymore).

[TheVulture]

50 Minutes Left

Orders

20 minutes in, and the rest of my forces arrive: a second company of panzergrenadier infantry and the Pv IV platoon. They start the journey to the forward assembly area.

1st platoon will continue their move probing the right flank to find out where the Americans are hiding. (The tracers in this picture are just small-arms richochets off the panther. Since I'm not concerned about them, I'll probably lose a tank commander or two to them at some point...)

The forward observer calls in his company 81mm mortars to deal with the first ATG, although it is in a fairly well sheltered position. Well, we'll see how that goes.

Action

The turn itself is relatively quiet, except for my lead panther. He seems to have found himself a comfortable spot where he can see the occasional enemy unit and send a few friendly rounds there way. The team by the ATG get to feel the love.

... and just in case they were feeling underappreciated, so does the MMG team.

Incidentally, when I set out the orders for this turn, I originally had a squad from 2nd platoon taking advantage of the breach the engineers had made in the hedge to move forwards. While I was writing this up, I realised what a stupid idea it was, so cancelled the order. The idea is for these platoons to make contact with the enemy and then set a secure position and sit in relative safety. So when they are one hedge sadely removed from an MMG deployed in good cover, would I then advance them to a position that is more exposed to that MMG, and won't tell me any more about where the enemy are. Weird how I get sucked in to these boneheaded moves by the compulsion to make my units do something and move towards the enemy like a life-weary moth.

[TheVulture]

49-47 Minutes Left

The next few turns are fairly quiet, as my reinforcements move up to the front line, and the units already there sit around for a quick cigarette break and brew whilst waiting for the mortars to arrive. The only busy people are 1st platoon continuing to probe on the right to determine the extent of the defensive deployment. They haven't yet found any enemy units.

None the less I still manage to rack up a vehicle loss as one of my all-terrain puma recon cars accidentally puts a wheel slightly off the edge of the road in to the mud.

While I am waiting for my spotting rounds to start, a round does indeed fall. (I have been experimenting with brightening up the images to show things a bit better - you have to pretend it is the middle of the night still...)

This is one of those conundrums. Is it one of my spotting rounds that has landed unfortunately close to my own men, or the spotting round of an enemy fire mission that is close to being on target? Since I am expecting spotting rounds right about now, I gamble that it is. And indeed, the next round to fall 40 seconds later is much closer to the ATG.

One final curiosity about the mortar round. I happened to see it zoomed up close enough to see the round. And in CMBN, a vertically falling mortar round looks like this:

Did someone rotate the mesh about the wrong axis?

[GerryCMBB]

Hello:

You mentioned brightening the screen. Is this some setting inside CMBN so that when you exit, the brightness defaults back to the desktop setting?

Thanks,

Gerry

[TheVulture]

Hello:

You mentioned brightening the screen. Is this some setting inside CMBN so that when you exit, the brightness defaults back to the desktop setting?

Thanks,

Gerry

Nope - it is me tweaking the brightness and contrast of the jpg files in GIMP after they are created

[TheVulture]

46 Minutes Left

Now that the ATG is about to be hit my mortars, I decide to get 3rd platoon's HQ to call in the other mortar battery on the other ATG by the church. It has been out of sight, but changing the covered arc last turn to get them facing out the other side of the house again has the gun back in view.

With my puma immobilised on the road, it is almost blocking the vehicle access to the village along my preferred route. I can well imagine another vehicle getting bogged and comletely blocking the road, so I decide it is time to scout along the more obvious route into the village between the bocage. 2nd platoon have been watching over this area for some time without seeing anything apart from that MMG, so I don't think the route is covered by ATGs. It is just a question of whether it is mined. A PSW 234/1 is sent to find out.

On the right, 1st platoon have determined that the farm complex is unoccupied and will start to turn to the left to approach the known enemy infantry position from the flank and rear.

The action this turn passes off without any trouble as the spotting rounds home in on the ATG and fire for effect is called (in German, obviously). 2nd company are now coming in to the contact area, and the first of the Pz IVs have pulled up behind the panthers. They are all going to have to sit around a wait for a bit now while I continue to determine where the defence is.

[TheVulture]

45 Minutes Left

Orders

Since I'm not doing with anything with 2nd platoon sitting in the corner of the field near the MMG, I might as well put them to use somewhere else. Where they are now they are bunched up together, and it is not as though the enemy are about to launch an attack through their sector. SO I can afford to spread 3rd platoon a little more thinly (now that they have finished with the first aid for those guys hit by the rifle grenade back at first contact). 3rd platoon are tied down for a while by the fact that their platoon HQ is calling in the mortars on the second ATG. So the basic plan becomes

3rd platoon will start to spread out to cover a wider area to their left. 2nd platoon will loop around behind them and advance on the right. 1st platoon will continue to sweep around further to the right. I will also continue to explore the approach up the left side of my position as an alternative vehicle route. The anticipated FLOT is indicated by the yellow(ish) lines. I should then be bumping up against the main defence, and 2nd company can take over the attack where it looks like their is a weak point.

Action

2nd platoon set off on their move, with 3rd platoon continuing to watch known enemy positions. Not unexpectedly, that pesky US team takes a few shots as they spy movement, and are once again treated to a lof of return firepower.

It looks like that team is down to 1-2 people now. I've seen only one definite kill, but seem to have been slowly whittling them down.

The mortar fire starts up in earnest this turn. The first salvo is not terribly accurate, but then they home in on the target quite nicely.

Several more rounds land within a few feet of the gun. One man is definitely hit, and I hear two more screams / cries for the medic. At the end of the turn I think I've caused at least 3 casualties, but can see one man still alive. Now might be a good time to rush a panther into LoS to finish them off while their morale isn't the best.

[TheVulture]

44 Minutes Left

Orders

If I send one panther to take on the ATG, I might as well send all three that are waiting. Overkill is the way to go. They will form a close-packed group at the top of the road.

While 2nd platoon continue to relocate and 1st platoon are still wandering around scouting (i.e. waiting to be shot at), it seems as though the left avenue is open for vehicle traffic. I advance the PSW to the edge of the bocage to hopefully get some shot at the MMG, and at the bottom of the picture you can see the waypoints of the other thre Pz IVs coming to join this flank.

[TheVulture]

Action

The panthers roll into position, and quickly come under fire from both ATGs. The one just hit by the mortars is apparently still willing to fire back, and the gun by the church can apparently see these three tanks; I'd thought they would be hidden from that point since the FO (just barely visible to the right) couldn't get LoS to the gun or anywhere that close to it. The three tanks soon spot their assailants and the duel is on.

From my side, the duel produces one causalty when a 57mm round splinters on the front armour of a panther and the shower of shell fragments hits one of the HMG section waiting patiently behind a house.

In retropsect, the possibility of that happening should have been obvious, and little details like that are one of the things I like about the Combat Mission games.

While being near the front of a friendly tank engaged is combat is a risky affair, being in front of an enemy tank engaged in combat is a much higher risk pass-time. In a single one second period there is a brief flurry of shots at the same target.

All three panthers fire their main guns at the front ATG almost simultaneously. Would you be surprised to learn that the gun is knocked out in consequence. For all that my panthers were willing to fire their main guns at this ATG, they seem curiously resistant to the idea of repeating it with the other ATG, and limit themselves to MG fire, which successfully keeps the crew suppressed. Eventually one of the panthers does decide to put some HE in to the mix which produces a little more effect.

The puma meanwhile has done what I expected: driven up to the bocage and engaged the MMG (and ammo team found next to it) with both the rapid fire 20mm cannon and its own MGs. I only see one enemy casualty - the bocage berm is good cover for infantry - but there is only going to be one winner in this short-range duel.

[TheVulture]

43 Minutes Left

Orders

I may be repeating myself here, but 1st platoon will continue to sweep around to locate the defence. I adjust 2nd platoon's movements slightly to take advantage of the presence of the panthers to push my infantry a bit further forward to areas I am pretty sure are safe. On the left, I move one of the newly arrived Pz IVs up to the bocage next to the PSW 234 to deal with the MG section. I start to advance 3rd platoon up to the bocage under the cover of these vehicles. Yeah, I said I was going to try to resist doing that, but think the infantry will be needed to really ensure the MMG is cleaned out properly. This will pretty much be the limit of the advance of 1st company - 2nd company are going to move through them once I decide on an axis of advance for them,

Action

Remember all that stuff I wrote about recently about how being in front of tanks was a bad idea? Apparently 2nd platoon didn't get the memo, and rather than hop over a wire fence they decide to run in amongst the panthers.

A lot of the tank MG fire directed at that 2nd ATG hit the intervening building, which might explain their reluctance to fire main guns at it. There is no return fire from the gun, so the machine guns of three panthers are apparently enough to keep is well suppressed. Hence, my infantry manage to run past with no problems.

There is a less positive infantry-tank interaction on the left though. That pesky american infantry team pop up yet again and one of the Pz IVs over on the left decides to see if it can squeeze an HE shell through three trees on its way to an enemy unit I still can't believe it can see. Anyone who has played this game (which doesn't include the commander of this tank I can only assume) will not be remotely surprised that the shell doesn't make it though the trees, instead exploding over the head of one of the advancing infantry squads and killing one man.

My self-inflicted injuries are mounting up in this battle. I belive that is the 11th man down in this battle in total, with quite a few injured (yellow base) on top of that.

2nd platoon's run past the panthers does flush out another enemy unit down the bottom of the road next the the ATG. It might have been ill advised to open fire when looking down the barrels of three panther, but time will tell. The turn ends before they can pay for their mistake.

The very last action of the turn is the final elimination of that first enemy infantry team: they too poke their heads out again to do some shooting, and get a few main gun rounds in response. The end of replay pause has the last man from that team caught in an explosion and just in the process of dropping his gun as he falls to the ground. I can't help but admire the courage under fire of that unit though.

[TheVulture]

42 Minutes Left

Orders

Things continue much as before. The only changes are that I decide to bring up some infantry on the left, since my AFVs don't seem to be having much success against the MMG team. And I tweak the positions on the panthers to try and get them a better line of sight on the ATG. It will have the side effect of opening a path for the two Pz IVs on this side to move down to where 1st and 2nd platoon are scouting to deal with any stubborn blockages.

Action

Aside from the panthers sending several more kilogrammes of machine gun rounds over to the ATG to little effect, the only real action is with the MMG team on the left. The advance of my infantry makes the defenders (including an ammo team) fire, which gets the attention of the considerable overwatch of three Pz IVs and a PSW 234 (plus more infantry) at very short ranges.

This finally has the desired effect. Several enemy casualties are caused, and the ammo bearer team doesn't much like my men getting so close and they turn and run. With the elimination of that annoying American infantry team last turn, and the MMG about to break or be overrun, I am finally making some progress. Those 10 or so men have held up my two companies plus tanks for quite a long time.

[Medex]

Much brighter now..looking good.

What's the purpose of removing unwanted units from the map in this campaign?