Group Anders Long Long Road

[vahauser]

Canadian Turn 10 north detail

A) My units are basically in the same positions they occupied by Turn 4. The artillery carpet has been so effective (and the 17-lbers) that I am well satisfied with positions as they are. I am in perfect flank shot locations on the advancing Pz-IVGs.

B) I plan to counterattack as soon as the Tiger threat has been neutralized. By that time I am guessing that the main German attack will be exhausted.

[vahauser]

Canadian Turn 10 center detail

A) My AT gun line is starting to take significant damage from the advancing Germans, but 5 of my 6 guns are still firing. And they have stopped the armored cars completely and damaged the advancing tanks in return.

B) 5 of my 6 jeeps have been knocked out, but that allowed my AT guns to continue firing.

C) I have a few engineer squads on flag guard duty that are now advancing to assist the AT guns if needed (offscreen to the left).

[vahauser]

Canadian Turn 10 south detail

A) My engineers have dismounted from their halftracks and are advancing to meet the threat of enemy StuGs. My tanks are too weak to defeat the StuGs by themselves, so the engineers are needed to help.

B) The direct fire smoke to the east is purely defensive. I am blocking the LOS of the advancing StuGs so my tanks can concentrate on defeating the enemy tanks attacking the AT gun line. My tanks are in very good flanking position.

C) Without any artillery support (all the artillery is firing in the north), this sector is becoming very tense.

[vahauser]

Battle #2
Canadian Meeting Engagement vs. Germany, near Bizerte, Tunisia
6 March 1943
Situation at the end of Canadian Turn 13

A) The German advance is petering out. My forward scouts see fewer and fewer enemy units each turn. In turn, my units have begun to position themselves for my counterattack and advance to the remaining victory flags.

B) In the north, the two German Tigers are about to advance right into my artillery carpet.

C) In the center, the German advance has pretty much ended.

D) In the south, my recce infantry immobilized the StuG advancing up the hill and my engineers are advancing on the other two enemy StuGs.

Next situation report at the end of Canadian Turn 16.

Screenshot of the end of Canadian Turn 13 (north sector):

[vahauser]

Screenshot of the end of Canadian Turn 13 (south sector):

[vahauser]

Canadian Turn 13 north detail

A) Some of my tanks and engineers have begun to move into attack positions against the enemy Tigers. I predict that the Tigers will not be able to withstand the artillery and engineers and tanks that I am about to attack them with. Combined arms plus attacks from the flanks and rear.

B) Besides fleeing enemy tank crews, my scouts are only aware of a handful of remaining German units. I am about to order a general advance.

[vahauser]

Canadian Turn 13 center detail

A) Only an immobilized German armored car and a damaged German tank are all that's left of the German center attack.

B) My SPAA section will deal with the armored car and my engineers are advancing to attack the enemy tank. Once the engineers have dealt with the tank they will load into halftracks and assist against the immobilized StuG in the south on the hill.

C) Aspects of SPWAW I Find Idiotic #1. Weapons Breakdown Rate. This pisses me off. Don't misunderstand me. I play with Weapons Breakdowns ON, so I am not opposed to the idea of weapons breakdowns. That idea is fine. It is the APPLICATION of the breakdown rules that I find to be idiotic. SPWAW allows immobilized vehicles to repair themselves during battle, but does NOT allow gun jams to be cleared during battle. And THAT is what is idiotic. And since SPWAW does not allow gun jams to be repaired during battle (idiotic), then the RATE of weapons malfunctions should be DRASTICALLY reduced to compensate for the non-repair of gun jams during battle. Keep weapons malfunctions in the game. That part is fine. But either allow guns jams to be repaired during battle, or else drastically reduce the RATE at which weapons malfunctions occur (by a factor of 3 or more) to compensate.

D) All of my AT guns have suffered damage, and 2 out of 6 have suffered non-repairable weapons malfunctions. But they did at last stop the German advance in the center.

[vahauser]

Canadian Turn 13 south detail

A) My recce infantry successfully ambushed the StuG trying to advance up the hill and managed to immobilize it. Now they will close assault it as often as they can for the rest of the battle in an attempt to destroy it. Engineers will reinforce this attack as soon as they become available.

B) My tank platoon has successfully maintained its initial combat position throughout the battle so far. My direct fire mortar has contributed mightily to that success. Now that my engineers are prepared to engage the remaining two StuGs, I have a very high degree of confidence in the combination of engineers and tanks to eliminate those two StuGs.

[vahauser]

Victor's Believe It Or Not
#1

This is part of what makes SPWAW so enjoyable for me. The weird and unusual things that seem to happen almost every game.

Look at Lt. Valentine's tank. Heh. It has taken Level 4 Damage (from an artillery bombardment) and yet all of its systems and weapons and crew are still in full working order. And it even has 1 movement point!

Believe it or not.

[As an aside, note that the tank has 1 smoke round. Where did this smoke round come from? Somehow this smoke round was added to the tank after Battle #1 because the tank did not have any smoke rounds when the campaign began. I've noticed the same thing in the Stalingrad campaign where the German Pz-IIIs get smoke rounds after the first battle. Something very weird is going on between campaign battles that is providing tanks of all nations that shouldn't have smoke rounds with smoke rounds.]

[vahauser]

Battle #2
Canadian Meeting Engagement vs. Germany, near Bizerte, Tunisia
6 March 1943
Situation at the end of Canadian Turn 16

A) The German Tigers advanced right into the artillery carpet and were immediately routed. I sent engineers and tanks to attack them. One routed Tiger crew abandoned their tank, and the other Tiger was destroyed by a point-blank rear shot from one of my tanks.

B) In the north, only one or two fleeing crews remain as far as I know. I am pursuing.

C) In the center, the immobilized armored car and the last enemy tank in the sector were eliminated. Only a Brandenburger squad remains near the center victory flag. I am closing in from all directions.

D) In the south, the immobilized StuG on the hill continues to be assaulted by recce infantry, now reinforced by some engineers. The other StuGs were eliminated by close assaults by engineers.

E) The artillery has been ordered to stand down and a general advance is now underway.

End of Battle Report coming soon.

Screenshot of the end of Canadian Turn 16 (north sector):

[vahauser]

Screenshot of the end of Canadian Turn 16 (south sector):

[vahauser]

Battle #2
Canadian Meeting Engagement vs. Germany, near Bizerte, Tunisia
6 March 1943
End of Battle Report

A) I scoured as much of the map as I could with jeeps and recon, and eliminated every German unit I could find on Turn 17. The game ended on Turn 18. I lost no core units in this battle. I’m very pleased about that.

B) My units in the south were unsuccessful in their close-assault attempts to destroy the immobilized StuG on the hill, but they managed to rout it and forced the crew to bail out, which was promptly eliminated.

C) Of the 36 enemy tanks and halftracks and armored cars destroyed by my forces during this battle, 23 of them (nearly 65%) were eliminated by my supporting 17-lber and 6-lber AT guns. Ordinarily this would upset me because I like to reserve all kills for my core units only, and taking 23 kills away from my core hurts my overall core experience gain. But I anticipated going into this battle that my core tanks would be too weak to face the German armor head-on. So I was willing to sacrifice some overall core experience in order to keep my core units alive. I’ve mentioned in other threads that I HATE to lose core units and will normally do everything I can to preserve them from harm.

D) Overall, I thought that my artillery carpet did a fine job of disrupting the German northern advance. Although my mortars rarely get a kill (sometimes against a fleeing crew), they were quite effective in putting lots of suppression on enemy units in their fire zone. I have 12 mortars/25-lbers in my core. I normally put two artillery on each hex in the carpet (for a total of 6 hexes covered). The pattern I use is two adjacent rows (north to south) of three hexes. Since it is rare for my artillery to fire all battle without one or two of them having weapon malfunctions, the 3 support mortars (the other 3 support mortars are used as direct fire smoke) fill in for malfunctioned core artillery as needed, to keep 12 tubes firing all battle.

E) The 17-lber AT guns were devastating. Getting a section of core 17-lbers is now my absolute top priority. I am a little surprised to find 17-lber AT guns available to the Canadians in March 1943. Even more surprised to find them as Rarity 0. But if that’s what the OOB says, then I want a pair of them immediately. I’ve seen what they can do. Wow.

Screenshot of the Battle Report for Battle #2: