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Campaign setup

I’ve decided to try out the new Fuger’s Ostliche Wut 43-44 campaign included in the new release of CC3 to see how it plays out. I’ll be playing the Germans and doing an AAR of my progress for the reader’s enjoyment.

After reading the campaign notes in the documents folder, I’ve decided to go with a 10 minute time limit for the most challenging game possible based on the designers recommendation of a 10-15 minute time limit.

I personally do not like longer time limits as the low number of units on each side opens up the maps for total conquest in one day if either side suffers heavy losses in a single day. With only 10 minute turns there should be time to capture front line objectives and perhaps a second line objective if a sector gets blown out.

But hopefully I won’t be seeing the entire map lost or captured in a single day’s battle. I’m just hoping the designer included enough requisition points between battles on each map to keep things interesting for both sides.

[img=http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/184/setupscreen1zl7.th.jpg]

The operation briefing seems to suggest if I manage to hold on for several days it will allow time for reserves to be brought up to bolster my defense. I’m not sure if this translates into requisition points on this map, or if it will increase requisition points on the other three maps of this operation. Either way I’ll hold on as long as possible with what little I have available.

I receive 131 requisition points to use to purchase my initial force. My first purchase is 2 points used to upgrade my 2 man commander unit to an early war 3 man command team. I then spend 17 points for another 3 man command team.

I then spend 41 points on a 5cm AT gun to give myself a little anti armor capability. I then spend 5 points on an elite sniper and 8 points on an elite 3 man recon team.

Finally I buy three 7 man Lt. Inf teams for 18 pints each. These teams have AT mines, grenade bundles and an AT rifle each, so this should give them some hope of stopping the expected heavy Russian armor from overrunning them too easily.

After all purchases I’m left with 4 points, which should carry over to the next days battle.

[img=http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/6807/setupscreen2uc8.th.jpg]

For my deployments I’ve created 2 positions in the east most objective areas. My main commander Burns and 1 Lt. Inf team along with the 5cm AT gun have set up in the brick building to protect the IV/56 Schutzpfosten objective flag.

[img=http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/1921/setupscreen3ae0.th.jpg]

My other commander Schubert and 2 Lt. Inf teams have set up in the trenches to defend the 56 Inf Defense Front objective flag.

[img=http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/3991/setupscreen4so4.th.jpg]

I was going to place both my sharpshooter and recon groups at the Vorposten Scorpion objective flag as sort of a reserve, but I noticed the Vop Crossing objective flag was contested so I set my recon team back by the crossing to take control of it. I’ll have them move into the buildings west of the crossing to protect the two rear area objectives from any long rang Russian incursions.

My snipers position is at 19.0 meters elevation, so he has a good overview of the battle area and is far enough removed that he should provide good long range support fire to either forward objective.

[img=http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/4176/setupscreen5uw4.th.jpg]

For those wondering why I chose to place the 5cm AT gun inside a building instead of atop the 19 meter hill, I assume I’ll be facing some pretty heavy Russian armor. I doubt that a 5cm gun can do more than dent the late war Russian tanks with front facing shots, so I’m hoping for a side shot ambush from my current concealed position.

Of course if Russian troops show up first my AT gun is toast since it’ll lose any concealment it currently has, but it would probably be toast atop the hill anyway due to long range tank gunfire so an attempted ambush was my strategy choice.


Jim

Hm, I've tried all the codes provided by image shack, why won't the images display here?

Op 1 day 1

The battle opens to a heavy bombardment. Based on the random fall patterns I cannot tell if it is friendly or enemy fire. Shells are landing all over the place, I’m hoping a direct hit doesn’t wipe out the entire brick building by collapsing it onto my troops.

I read something about bombardments in the briefing but didn’t give any thought to it when doing my deployments. I hope I don’t pay a huge price for my oversight. I also have my recon team sitting out in the open near the bridge where they took full control of the objective flag, I’ve ordered them to sprint for cover ASAP.

[img=http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/4158/op1day1screen1aw4.th.jpg]

Looks like the Russians got caught in the open too. [:D]

[img=http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/3273/op1day1screen2qg2.th.jpg]

Well it’s over a minute and a half into the scenario and shells are still falling all over the place. I was alerted to something perhaps I should not know and jumped when I saw an AT gun was damaged, for a second I thought it was mine.

As you see in the below screenshot, the message area shows the report that a 76.2mm AT gun was damaged. The thing is it wasn’t my AT gun and no one had any possible line of sight to that gun (I found a little dead guy near the bottom of the map so I assume that’s where the gun is). This message should not be displayed to the player unless someone has a line of sight to the gun.

[img=http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/6379/op1day1screen3sf0.th.jpg]

The bombardment appears to be over and as far as I can tell it looks like the Russians lost a total of 8 men. Several shells landed close to my guys but no one got hurt. A Russian squad appeared on the ridgeline SE of the brick building and I gave my sniper (Binder is his name) defend orders and he got a kill with his first shot. WOOT! Great start for my sniper, I LOVE these units.

I’ll let him take one or two shots more and then switch him back to ambush before he gets spotted.

On a gloomier note, I’ve spotted at least 3 enemy tanks to the east. None were identified yet but it appears 1 is a KV, 1 a T-34 and the last possibly a US made Stuart. The only tank my AT gun has any chance at all with is the Stuart, and I’m not sure I’ve seen all the enemy tanks yet, moan…

[img=http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/3967/op1day1screen4ca3.th.jpg]

Six and a half minutes left and the Russian attack begins in earnest. As I feared Russian troops appeared at the brick building before any armor, but the defending squads managed to kill 1 man and force the rest to pull back east behind the ridge line for now.

Now 2 tanks are advancing towards my positions. The Stuart is advancing strait towards the brick building from the east, but all the trees in the area makes a shot almost impossible until it’s almost on top of me.

I’ve turned the AT gun towards the Stuart, but now the T-34 is coming down the street to the NE and to make matters worse, it’s a flamethrower tank. Why oh why did I bunch my troops up? If that tank gets within flamethrower distance this day’s battle is over, he’ll roast all my men in either defense position with one shot.

[img=http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/8701/op1day1screen5oa2.th.jpg]

And the Stuart goes BOOM! Now if I can only spin my gun before the T-34 gets its sights on me.

[img=http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/1659/op1day1screen6tv3.th.jpg]

Well eleven AT rounds slamming into the tank later and I’ve managed to damage the OT-34, but it’s finally managed to get its front hull pointed in my direction so things don’t look good. It’s fired several main gun rounds already and suppressed, pinned, incapacitated or broken most of my defending Lt. Inf team and the Russian troops have now moved back over the ridge line and are making their assault.

Things look bad for my southern defense group. Also my sniper is under heavy mortar fire and has been wounded. I’ve given him orders to sneak NW to the trench line further back, hopefully the enemy will lose track of him for the rest of this battle and I’ll be able to save him. He has 3 and possibly more kills this fight and I’d hate to lose him now.

I’ve contemplated charging down the hill with the Lt. Inf team closest to the OT-34, but the KV is still to the east somewhere, not to mention that hidden heavy mortar. No sense losing a team when I’m already so far behind the ratio in force strength already.

With only 1 green crewman left I’m hoping the OT-34 bails out or something before it finishes my guys off in the brick building.

[img=http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/7008/op1day1screen7mw3.th.jpg]

Seconds later the OT-34 goes BOOM! Now the KV is all I have left to worry about, not to mention all the Russian troops.

[img=http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/4232/op1day1screen8lr8.th.jpg]

With the OT-34 threat removed, the crew of the 5cm AT gun picks up their rifles and manages to repulse/kill the closest assaulting Russian troops. Hopefully this will buy enough time for my Lt. Inf team to recover from the ravages of the OT-34 in time to continue the defense.

[img=http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/4664/op1day1screen9bc0.th.jpg]

About 3 minutes left to go and the KV tank finally starts its assault. I’ve shown the fire lane for the AT gun in the below screenshot, I wonder if a 5cm gun can even hurt the side armor of a KV at 100 meters? I doubt it.

The remaining Russian troops assaulting the brick building surrendered once I ordered the Lt. Inf team nearest the OT-34 to open fire from across the road (I’ve since placed it back on ambush).

I’m a little disappointed there weren’t more Russian soldiers. From what I can tell there was a recon team (3 men), a MMG team, an ATR team and perhaps a 7-8 man Inf team and that was it. I haven’t seen any other infantry, I wonder if the AI spent all its money on the armor and that AT gun that was damaged early on?

I’ve taken a gamble and ordered commander Burns (that’s me [;)] ) to move south out of the brick building to take the ridge line objective flag of arête nue. Hope I don’t get mowed down by a hidden ambush.

[img=http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/209/op1day1screen10nx0.th.jpg]

The KV moved within range of my Inf teams at the north objective and they begin to assault it and immobilize it right away. As the screenshot shows by the black ring, my AT gun has no hope of harming the tank, even though it was a full on side shot just a few seconds before this screenshot, the ring was still black then. Guess my Inf teams will have to go it alone.

[img=http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/963/op1day1screen11mn3.th.jpg]

Shortly after that last screenshot the AI offered a truce and I decided to accept. I probably could have taken out the KV and captured the arte nue objective but since I’ve seen some weakness in the AI this first battle I decided not to take advantage of the situation.

Had the AI even had 1 more Inf team to assault the brick building, I believe its attack would have carried the position. My guess is it could have had 2 or 3 more teams had it simply not bought the AT gun that got damaged (they usually cost about 30-40 points). Had that been the case this battle would have been a lot more challenging.

As it is the pathing problems with AI tanks lead the KV to remain out of the critical part of the battle (it was doing circles in the buildings in the NE part of town) and allowed my AT gun to survive long enough to pump 12 shots into the OT-34 which finally killed it.

Had the KV been around I bet the brick building would have collapsed shortly after the AT gun exposed itself and the flamethrower tank would have then easily mopped up my remaining infantry.

Here’s the battle end screen, according to it I gained control of the ridge line even though my commander hadn’t reached it yet. Guess it was a force ratio thing or something that caused it to no longer be a contested flag.

[img=http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/2022/op1day1screen12qo2.th.jpg]

The casualty ratios (totals of 26-4) are astounding. Even if you take away the 8 Russians that fell to the preparatory barrage, it’s still 18-4. Guess the AI isn’t as new and improved as I had hoped for. But then again I think the real problem with this battle was the choices the AI made regarding force structure. 2 or 3 more large infantry teams would have probably made things dramatically different. So I’ll reserve my final judgment on the AI for now, but I’m skeptical at this point.


Jim

Good AAR, Jim. And a good battle too for keeping most of your force intact. I see that the AI chose armor heavy and a center attack in this one. Wait until you run into infantry heavy and a southern envelopment or the northern deployed infantry platoon with a tank or two. The AI changes up each time, so there is no one battle will ever be the same. That southern envelopment one will definately mess with your battle plan.

That stone building you defended? I've had a rifle team and a group leader team smacked down hard by two of the random shells. It took out all but one from each team and a Pz IV waiting beside it. All I could do after the barrage ended was bug out the rest for the other side of the river and hope to defend the bridge and the shallows to the south of it.

I did, barely, at a cost. As with all play against the AI, you will sooner or later figure out a best mix and deploy to clean the AI's clock most of the time. But even then, it can throw some devistating punches at you.

Have fun and keep us posted!

Op 1 Day 2

Day 2 begins and I find myself with 47 requisition points to spend. Checking the armor available I see the only possible tank I can buy would be a Bison with its 150mm infantry gun. While it would be nice to have such a heavy gun for anti-infantry duties, it would cost all 47 points and I’d have nothing left for force refits and other purchases.

So I spend a total of 9 points refitting my two Inf teams that have some casualties. I then spend 17 more points on my third early war command team. And finally I spend 13 points on a 50mm mortar team. This will leave me 8 points to carry over to the next battle.

I decide to place my sniper and 1 infantry team on rest since they both have injured personnel that need to heal.

I checked if I could have refit my AT gun to a 7.5cm gun, but that item is depleted and not available.

[img=http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/3036/op1day2screen1nj6.th.jpg]

For my deployments this day I’ve decided to concede the 56 Inf Defense Front objective and not place any defenders there. The Russian setup area is simply too close today compared to yesterdays fight and anything I’d place there will be assaulted in short order, so I’ve given up worrying about that flag.

I’ve placed my new leader Toth and 1 Lt. Inf team in the brick building along with my AT gun again. Basically the same setup I had in yesterdays fight. I debated placing the AT gun back behind the small hill just west of the Vop Crossing bridge facing south, but I assumed the battle might not get that far today and any AT capability at all is worth risking the team once more.

[img=http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/9126/op1day2screen2zm3.th.jpg]

My other defensive group is my leader Schubert and 1 Lt. Inf team placed to defend the Vorposten Scorpion hilltop position. This is more of a backup position as I expect the full brunt of the AI’s attack will probably fall on the brick building.

[img=http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/5092/op1day2screen3pv0.th.jpg]

Finally I created a reserve position west of the bridge consisting of myself, the 3 man recon team and my new 50mm mortar team. This group is pretty weak and really only has a chance at stopping enemy infantry, but with the ridge line objective of arête nue in my hands, it’s possible that the AI will launch an attack through that position and head straight to the bridge as Senior Drill implies it might in his above post. So better to be safe than sorry.

[img=http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/4443/op1day2screen4mv4.th.jpg]

The battle commences and the first enemy spotted is a T-34 ’42 headed straight for the arête nue objective flag. This places him completely out of my AT guns line of fire and has me struggling over whether or not to try and push my gun out onto the street. I’ll give it some more time before I make a decision on this risky move, I want to see some Russian infantry first to see where his attack materializes.

[img=http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/8313/op1day2screen5jc2.th.jpg]

After taking the ridge line objective, the T-34 turned due north and is headed towards the brick building. To make matters worse my AT gun appears to be having trouble turning and the tank has now opened fire on the building. Guess it spotted some movement inside.

[img=http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/2578/op1day2screen6rr8.th.jpg]

The T-34 passes close by the SW end of the building and my new commander Toth and his team expend all their grenades in a futile assault attempt. I checked the AT guns line of sight and it has no hope of firing on the tank as long as it stays south and west of the gun. Currently the T-34 is turning away to the left, perhaps its going to head to the bridge now.

[img=http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/3868/op1day2screen7bn9.th.jpg]

The T-34 has moved south away from the building about 25 meters or so and appears to be turning to face its front towards the building now. An enemy recon team appeared near the T-34 and both my command teams have opened fire on it even though they are both set to ambush.

This will probably expose their position and allow the T-34 to decimate them. I’ve begun shelling the recon team with my 50mm mortar team in an attempt to wipe it out before the T-34 spots my leaders.

[img=http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/220/op1day2screen8jb5.th.jpg]

The T-34 heads straight towards Schubert and parks atop the Scorpion position hilltop and begins blasting the Lt. Inf team killing 2 already. My AT gun now has a shot and fires once before enemy mortar shells crash down rubbling the building close by and disrupting the gun crew.

Now is the critical moment of the battle, if the T-34 gets his sights on my gun crew before they can recover its all over for my guys.

I have no idea what caused the explosion near the T-34, perhaps it was an anti-armor weapon from the chewed up Lt. Inf team. Or perhaps there is a second enemy mortar team beginning to fire on the hilltop in addition to the one firing on the brick building.

[img=http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/492/op1day2screen9xj5.th.jpg]

The T-34 is still blasting the troops atop the Scorpion hilltop. Schubert died to an overrun attack and the Lt. Inf team is down 3 or 4 men. The AT gun has managed to pump several rounds into the T-34 and finally manages to damage it killing a single crewmember.

At this point an enemy infantry team appears east of the brick building and begins its assault. My troops are still in good shape inside the building, though many were shaken from the recent mortar attacks, most are now recovered. Another mortar strike now would be devastating though.

I’ve ordered my 50mm mortar to begin shelling the hill, but its going to be delayed a bit. I was in the process of trying to lay smoke on the T-34 so my infantry could flee and now I have to switch ammo out.

[img=http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/2931/op1day2screen10dz5.th.jpg]

Just when I thought things were going my way, the enemy begins another mortar barrage on my AT gun and the first rounds almost land on top of it. The attacking infantry was repulsed and the T-34 immobilized and I thought this thing is over, but now the T-34 is pounding the Lt. Inf team again and Schubert’s remaining men are both broken with no one around to rally them.

It’s still up in the air how things will go. Though immobilized the T-34 has taken control of the hilltop flag and is in position to keep control of it. If the AT gun goes down then it’ll end in a stalemate in the region unless more Russian infantry show up to attack the brick building again.

And where is the KV from yesterday’s battle? Do immobilized tanks remain so in the next day’s setup?

[img=http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/5936/op1day2screen11sg3.th.jpg]

And the T-34 goes Boom! But it has effectively destroyed or panicked the entire Lt. Inf team on the hilltop and now 2 Russian Machinegun teams are spotted to the north headed south towards 56 Inf Defense Front objective. Looks like the infantry fight is going to heat up and half my guys are now dead or panicked.

On a brighter note, one of Schubert’s men rallied when he saw the T-34 go up in smoke.

I’m now a bit worried about AT guns inside buildings. My little 50mm landed about 20 shells on the T-34 and it never returned fire. The OT-34 from yesterday fired on my Lt. Inf team in the brick building but it also never fired on the AT gun. Have the new changes made it impossible for tanks to see guns inside of buildings or something? If so this needs immediate rectification in a patch.

[img=http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/2116/op1day2screen12hu3.th.jpg]

Here’s what’s left of the Lt. Inf team on the hilltop. They came under fire from the KV (it’s near the objective flag on the far east map edge) when they moved into the open to retake the objective flag, everyone who lived panicked and broke. The Russian machinegun teams are almost at the 56 Defense Front flag and all I have left to defend the Scorpion hilltop is 1 man from Schubert’s team (the other died from a sniper shot coming from the south somewhere).

[img=http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/89/op1day2screen13bd6.th.jpg]

After taking the 56 objective flag, the enemy offered a truce and I again accepted since going on any longer would simply pile up my kills on his forces. This day’s battle sees a 25-7 casualty ratio, so things aren’t much better than yesterdays fight.

After seeing the performance of my little 50mm AT gun in the past couple of days I’m convinced something is wrong with armor sighting of guns inside structures. No way a T-34 is going to sit on that hilltop and let an AT gun pump about 20 rounds into it without ever returning fire.

Also the AI attack today was very broken up and piecemeal with elements arriving at the front just about the time the previous element that arrived gets destroyed.

The AI needs to know how to mass for an attack and coordinate all elements at once. Instead we still see armor charge headlong into the fray without infantry support to end up getting decimated when it would have done a lot better staying back in a standoff role to shell enemy positions.

I noted I got credit for a damaged armor today, even though the KV was never fired upon by my troops. This should not happen if that damaged armor counts towards victory points in today's battle somehow. It was simply an immobilized hold over from yesterday’s battle.

[img=http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/9067/op1day2screen14nj8.th.jpg]

Jim

Hi Jim,

Thanks very much for the well written and thoughtful AARs. I wil look forward to the next one.

Regards John

[It’s still up in the air how things will go.

That is one of the best buzzes I get from a CC Battle... that moment or period when things could go either way...

Very much enjoying your reports!  Being part of the Production Team, the subject of the AI is one am very interested in.  We had no agenda to do anything substantial (i.e. a lot of Code working), and so concentrated on trying to moderate or resolve some of the most dire problems (pathing), but also dipped into the behavioural aspects.  What fascinated me was how such apparantly trivial modifications can have quite big consequences, and sometimes, not what you expect or desire!...

There is no doubt in my mind (being a long on the tooth old timer especially with CC3) that I do not play CoI in quite the same way as I played CC3.  Sometimes the effects seems subtle, but I find I can get away with more 'risk' in CC3 than CoI when it comes to operating cohesively.  I am keen to hear how players respond to these things, and so I am not going to say any more [:)]

What CC calls the Strategic AI (i.e. that which controls the enemy actions as the 'Commander'), is not very deep, and has always been a weak point in the CC Games.  It is still going to be here, but I believe we have found improvements in this area too.  Just don't expect anything 'intelligent'... or perhaps I shouldn't have said that... [X(] Still, I hope you do get a few surprises!

Op 1 Day 3

Day three starts and I’m allotted 60 requisition points for purchasing and refitting. I refit the damaged Lt. Inf team for 11 points and the damaged Command team for 10 points.

I have no more available unit slots and several of my units have injured men and will be set to rest, so I decided to look over which units I can refit/upgrade to better equipment.

First things first, I finally get to upgrade my AT gun to a 7.5cm piece for a cost of 5 points. Now it has some real punch for any front armor shots.

I then spend 19 points and upgrade my 3 man recon team to a mid war 7 man recon team. In addition to its 6 SMG’s, this team has 1 light machinegun, 1 grenade bundle and 1 explosives, so it now has some decent long range anti-personnel ability and some minimal anti-armor ability and can be counted on to possibly hold a position against all comers if needed.

Finally I spend 10 points to upgrade my 5cm mortar team to an 8cm mortar team. Leaving me 5 points to carry over to the next days fight.

2 Lt. Inf teams, 1 command team and my sniper are all placed on rest as they have injured personnel.

[img=http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/6598/op1day3screen1az8.th.jpg]

Given the enemy setup regions (they flank the brick building now both north and south) I’ve decided not to try and hold anything east of the river for a third day in a row. I thought about trying to hold the Scorpion hilltop, but I felt that would make the needed two separated defensive groups too weak as they’d be too far apart to support one another. Instead I’ve created a single powerful defensive position west of the bridge.

My 7.5cm AT gun is positioned just behind the hill west of the bridge so it can get a good close range flank shot on any armor venturing west of the bridge. The below screenshot shows the line of fire where the gun is no longer blocked by the hill to the east, so any tanks stopping east of that fire line can decimate the little village, but this is the AI and I doubt it’ll just stop and shoot once it crosses the bridge.

I’ve positioned both large Inf teams and 1 command team (Brucker has replaced Schubert who died in yesterday’s battle) in the south buildings and my personal command unit is across the street in a northern building. The 8cm mortar team is to the north of my command unit at the very edge of my command radius.

[img=http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/633/op1day3screen2re3.th.jpg]

The battle commences and immediately I observe an SU-76M at the arête nue objective flag and it races straight towards the brick building. Shortly thereafter a KV-1 crests the hill where the SU-76M began the battle. Looks like it was a good idea not to try and hold the eastern objectives again, if that KV heads for the bridge the AT gun is all I have that can stop it.

[img=http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/7954/op1day3screen3zm0.th.jpg]

Look what finally made an appearance, this must be that AT gun that was damaged on the first day (not identified yet so I’m not sure), my mortar team is ranging in as I type. The dead guy is from a Russian recon team I mortared as it crossed the summit heading west a bit earlier.

Both enemy tanks are doing rings around the SE corner of the brick building in a futile attempt to reach the flag there. I hope some Russian infantry gets there soon and takes that objective so the armor doesn’t spend the day doing silly little circles.

[img=http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/5136/op1day3screen4ss1.th.jpg]

Yay, the enemy tanks finally figured it out… sigh.

[img=http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/35/op1day3screen5um8.th.jpg]

Another tank (T-34 ’42) shows up to the party, this one appears to be headed to the bridge. The other two are still trying to untangle themselves from the brick building and surrounding woods.

The enemy recon team is crawling across the bridge towards the Vop Crossing flag, I may have to expose the closest Lt. Inf team to clear them out.

20 mortar rounds later and I haven’t touched the Russian AT gun yet.

[img=http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/6463/op1day3screen6in5.th.jpg]

For the first time in this campaign, the AI has impressed me. [&o] The enemy recon team moved in close and spotted my Lt. Inf team. Then the T-34 which had moved due west to the rivers edge and the SU-76M atop Scorpion Hill opened fire and decimated my Lt. Inf team in very short order. Though the enemy recon team died for their troubles, the Russians racked up a good casualty ratio in a perfectly timed operation. I know it’s all probably due to pure chance, but hey it’s nice to dream.

With 5 minutes left to go I’m starting to wonder if I should simply pull out and keep my troops intact. But I want to give my AT gun a chance first.

The T-34 is heading south so perhaps I’ll get a shot on him if he goes far enough south.

[img=http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/6677/op1day3screen7vw2.th.jpg]

The SU-76M crosses the bridge and gets damaged by the AT guns first shot. As the vehicles crew bails out and surrenders, grenades go off that were thrown by the infantry teams and the vehicle crew goes down after it had officially surrendered. I hope I don’t get gigged for that, those grenades were already thrown before the surrender.

Now the KV-1 ’41 is lumbering towards the bridge, I’m really nervous about my ability to harm it with the 7.5cm AT gun. My finger is twitching over the flee button, but what the heck I came here to fight.

The T-34 headed east back across the ridge line and is milling around in the open field east of the ridge. I have no idea what the heck it’s doing (lost sight of it), but for now it took itself out of the fight.

[img=http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/4813/op1day3screen8cb9.th.jpg]

My tension level is through the roof right now. Either things will go my way in the ambush or things will get ugly for me real quick. [:(]

[img=http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/2703/op1day3screen9tm4.th.jpg]

Oh no! The KV finished off the Lt. Inf team with one shot of his heavy gun and my first AT shot bounced off his thick hide. Now he’s turning towards my AT gun and me personally (that’s my command team in front of him now), yikes!

[img=http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/4494/op1day3screen10mz2.th.jpg]

I’ll simply let the screenshot tell the tale.

[img=http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/3470/op1day3screen11lg8.th.jpg]

Well with 2 minutes left to go I’ve decided to flee the map (besides I’m tired of this map). I can stay and pick off the rest of the KV’s crew, but I feel that’ll simply be piling on. The KV should have blown my AT gun away, but I watched as its turret swung past my AT guns position twice before the fatal shot was fired by the AT gun.

I think the changes made to armors ability to spot AT guns are too extreme. At first I thought it was just inside of a building, but here my gun was a mere 30 meters away in open terrain and my crew was frantically trying to reload after its last shot, but the KV failed to spot it.

The KV should have easily seen them I think, after all it has 2 machineguns and the main gun and all those weapons crewmen would have been frantically looking for what had just shot them.

NOOOOO! [X(] I never should have hit flee. The pop-up said I’d lose 7 soldiers and I thought it was the 7 from the wiped out Inf team it was referring to. Instead I lost the entire southern command team and the entire AT gun team (both were perfectly fine and in good order). AARRGGHH! There was no one around except the broken vehicle crew which was fleeing east, why on earth would they surrender?

This really chaps my hide, looks like I’ll be taking a little break before I revisit this campaign again. [:@][:@][:@]

Well at least the casualty figures were about even this time.

To be continued after a needed break, grumble, grumble.

[img=http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/4594/op1day3screen12gq1.th.jpg]

Jim

The pop-up said I’d lose 7 soldiers

That's a hard way to find out... but the unexpected does happen in real conflict too...[;)]  I suspect you will be reviewing this report in a new light if you choose to do this again  [:)].  The number of soldiers is based on the state of the battle at the time.  If you 'Flee' at the very beginning of a battle, you will always lose 0 soldiers.  How the game actually calculates how many, I don't know.

Excelent AAR,s Jim.Looking forward to your next one .

wow, reminds me of the Atomic Games ladder we did in testing before release.
 
I forget who I was playing but the battle ran very much like that to win the ladder.
 
Old memories from 10 years ago reborn.
 
Cool,
 
E[&o]

Hummm, I have memories of certain pics of a MB. Now where did I save those too.....

the naked ones with the lizard????
 
If you have them post one, I can't find mine.
 
E

cant seem to see the pictures...
 
?
 
 

the naked ones of me, or the AAR picts?
 
E