Another AAR

[henri51]

Having figured out how to save screenshots with the Mac without having to quit the game, I have started another game of the second scenario, where the Germans are trying to link up with their main force to the West by passing through my units. After starting the scenario, I place my units and a battle breaks out in the North. The screen shows the initial starting positions. I am allowed to move my units in this area before the fighting starts.



Here you can see my 3 infantry platoons each with 3 squads of 7 men. The enemy are the blue blobs in the NE (I am playing with all enemies visible). There are about 50 enemy soldiers and I have about 70. Note the icons in the top right where I can either select a full platoon or one of its squads. When you select a platoon as I have done here, all its squads are shown including a commander if there is one.

Here I am allowed to place my units, and I will do so in the next message and screenshot, where they are deployed expecting the enemy attempting to either break through or perhaps to try to flank me. The enemy usually divides his forces ito 3 or so groups, and I expect him to do the same here.

Hmmm.. the screenshots are a bit big, so I will try to use Paint to make them smaller.

[henri51]

Here is the start of the battle. The blue circles show the enemy units and the red circles show the defensive positions of my three platoons. The arrows show the possible locations of enemy attacks. Usually they will use at least one of their squads to attempt to flank my positions. In this case, they milled around a bit at first and then surprised me by doing the totally unexpected.




Here I am showing my units as icons, but I could also show them as the Germans are with little colored balls over their heads. I find it easier to use this map to follow the action instead of the 3D map. Note also that this map is only the top half of the combat map, which itself is a fraction of the total scenario map.

The situation for the Germans here is not easy: they are outnumbered by almost 2:1, and they have to attempt to get to the West of the map across my force in defensive positions. Of course they could decide to just grab a bit of territory and wait for the turn to end, hoping to have a better situation on the following moves. In another thread on this forum I described briefly how their friends in the West attacked my at 6:1 odds with tanks and artillery support and wiped the floor with my puny units.

The next message will show what they did. Stay tuned, I will post the result later after the visitors I am expecting go back home.[:D]

henri

[henri51]

Now the Germans did the unexpected. They began to move South instead of moving West as expected.



Now I am not to sure what is the meaning of this. 1) It could be a feint to get me to come out of my defensive positions; 2) they could be trying to outflank me to the South; 3) they could be biding their time and horsing around waiting for the time to expire. (I have the max battle time set to one hour, so if nothing happens before that time the battle will end and move on to the next turn).

From the clock on the bottom left there is already 20 minutes gone, so I have to decide what to do. I didn't mention that my clampong down on a defensive position allowed the enemy to grab a victory flag, so if I don't do anything I will have lost a victory location for nothing.

After a few more minutes, I decide to use my northern platoon to grab the objective to their SE, and to move my reserve platoon in the center South along the road parallel to the enemy movement, so if they decide to suddenly veer west, they will have to fight this blocking force. The Northern platoon will bew closer to the enemy and in a better position to intervene, or perhaps to grab another flag if the Germans continue to move South. The other platoon stays where they are for the moment, since I don't want to move everyone out of their defensive positions.

Henri

[henri51]

This picture is the 3-D map showing the enemy still moving South. I have now captured the victory flag in the North, and you can see my reserve platoon moving South along the road. Out of view to the SE is the other German platoon moving SE.

[henri51]

Now with less than 10 minutes left, the Germans veer West and attack directly into my platoon in a defensive position.




I figure it is now or never, and with almost half of the Germans too far away to intervene, I decide to counterattack; Leaving the defending platoon in place to serve as an anvil, I hammer the Germans from two other directions. Caught in a cauldron with fire coming from three directions, it doesn't take long for the Germans to be wiped from the map.

I have time to grab the nearby objective and decide to go after the remaining German platoon, but they are too far away and the turn ends.

Henri

[henri51]

This is the screen that shows the result of the battle.



The Germans have taken 27 casualties and I have taken only four (with one killed). Note that the screen says that this is only a draw, which probably means that this is not the victory for the battle but the level of victory for the whole campaign which has (I think) 10 turns.

Since this is only the first turn and I have only hammered one German platoon, it may be a bit early to crow, since from other games I know that the Germans have plenty of units both to the East and to the West with tanks, artillery, and much else. Check out my thread with the title "sufferin soccatash" to see how the German crushed me when they attacked from the West with such a force,utterly destroying four of my platoons including two tank platoons...[:@]

But anyway, so far so good, as the falling guy said as he went by the 10th floor window...[:D] Maybe I will post some more after I play the next move (there were no other battles this move - often there is more than one battle per move).

Henri

[mercho]

Hi Henri,

Dont't want to hijack your beautiful AAR. I have one question. Where can i change, that my soviet troops look like the germans in your aar ? Not like symbols, more then the small dots with the circle heads ? Hope you understand what i mean, lol....

mercho

[gids]

have to click on the 2 nd button down left of your screen beside that lightning bolt ,you can click it several times and you will see the symbols above their head change

[henri51]

F6 toggles among 3 possibiities: icons, little balls over their heads, or just the men (almost invisible) - I never use the latter, which can be useful only for extreme closeups.

Henri

[henri51]

Ok, on to the next move. I place my units and see that the GErmans in the North are a bit weak. I think that I can probably have time to attack them and destroy before their forces to the South can intervene, then maybe I can destroy the enemy piecemeal. So I order two infantry platoons to attack there figuring that I should have a local superiority of about 2:1.



The Germans are the little blue dots. However the best laid plans of mice and men....

Henri

[henri51]

YAAAGGHH!

I forgot that the enemy during this phase can move too, and the German AI apparently saw that his Northern force was rather isolated, and moved them down with the other Germans there.




Dang! Now I am facing a superior enemy in numbers and quality: I am outnumbered by about 2:1 and the Germans have machineguns mortars and artillery whereas I have only infantry without heavy weapons. Anyway I figure that I can capture the two nearby victory locations. My plan is then to hunker down and hope to be able to hold on until the time runs out for this battle (one hour). So my Northern platoon moves SE and takes the objective while the other platoon occupies the other victory flag and digs in and waits. The Germans are also waiting, and some are even in trenches.

Henri

[henri51]

This screenshot shows me occupying the two flag locations and waiting for the enemy to attack, which they seem in no hurry to do.

After a half hour of waiting (luckily one can accelerate the time). they offer a ceasefire which I am happy to accept. There have been no casualties for either side but I have captured a flag.






Here I am using the option to display my men with little red balls over their heads.Although they are hard to see, there is a platoon between the two circles that are command radii for the platoon commanders.

Henri

[henri51]

Ono to move 3; I bring in some reinforcements that include heavy weapons and tanks. Now I am going to try to move my units on the strategic map in order to try to get a battle near the center where I will have local superiority. Although it would be more prudent to put my units in good defensive positions since my mission is to prevent the Germans linking up, I figure if I can whittle them down that would give me an advantage.




OHMYGOD! The Germans are attacking from both sides and I have three battles to fight this turn! Which one should I fight first? I am not sure if the results from one battle carries over into the next, because if this is the case, one would be better off in fighting the easier battles first (assuming I could figure out which battle I have any chance of winning...).[:'(]

There's gonna be a hot time in the old town tonight...[X(]

Henri

[Tejszd]

Thanks for posting!

[shrek]

Agreed, keep 'em coming! [:)]

[henri51]

I decide to start with the central battle, because it has the highest chance of having more friendly units.




And indeed, I have five platoons: a recon platoon, a tank platoon with two tanks, a machinegun platoon with four squads, and two 3-squad infantry platoons. The enemy is fairly numerous and is rather dispersed, although they are still free like me to place their units. I place one infantry unit at both ends, and the MG platoon in the center since it is the slowest, as well as the recon and tank units since they can move rather fast and I have roads allowing to move up and down fairly easily. So this disposition of my forces is flexible and I would have probably chosen something similar even if I had no idea where the enemy is (remember I am playing with full kknowledge of enemy locations, which is a considerable advantage).

Henri

[henri51]

Sure enough, when I start the turn, the enemy has moved most of their force to the forest in the North, and have left weaker forces to the South.




The Hun has stuck his head in the meat grinder and I have my fist on the handle!

So my plan is rather straightforward. The infantry and the MG platoons in the N will hold their positions to defend against any incursion by the strong enemy force in the North. The weaker German force in the South should be no match for a pincer attack by my infantry platoon in the South and the recon platoon supported by one of the tanks. The infantry will loop around the lake and seize the objective while blasting then enemy in the nearby buildings while the recon guys and the tanks blast them from the opposite side.

The other tanks will move up the road diagonally to support the heavy weapons and the infantry. The Germans in the woods up there have 3 choices: 1) they can stay there and wait for the time to run out; 2) they can attack West and try to overrun my much smaller infantry platoon to grab the objective and run around my flank; 3)they can come down and try to link up with their brothers in the South.

Option 3 would entail having their flank raked by my machineguns not to mention running smack into tank fire not to mention the possibility of being hit in the rear by my infantry running behind them, so that option is highly unlikely.

Option 2 is the more likely since their mission is to attempt to link up with their forces in the West.But it would mean being hit in the flank by at least some of my heavy weapons and possibly my armor.

Option 1 is a bit worrisome, because I only have an hour and my Southern infantry platoon will need time to circle around the lake, and I have to be careful not to to attack the Southern Germans too early with the recon platoon before the infantry is ready to shoot them in the back.

Henri

Conrad Black has written an article in the Huffington Post claiming that President Nixon was not a crook. He wrote it from his jail cell where he also claims that he is not a crook. Talk about the pot trying to paint the kettle white...[:D]

[Missouri_Rebel]

Good work. Please continue

[henri51]

So I begin to follow my plan. This screenshot shows my Southern pincer headed for the objective according to plan.




The Germans across the lake have apparently guessed my intention and have begun to move back to the objective. On the top you can see the Germans showing signs of moving West. On the left of the picture you can see my recon units approaching, and in the center one of my tanks is coming down the road. The Germans across the lake have already taken casualties, some from my infantry across the lake and probably some from my armor.

Henri

[henri51]

This picture shows the situation in the North, where some of the Germans are moving West.




My infantry in the North and the machinegun platoon are in defensive positions, but the Germans might try to outflank them to the North, in which case my 3 infantry squads might not be able to stem the tide. The German movements so far indicate that the Germans might split their force, distracting the defenders with a frontal attack while most of their force flanks to the North.

My second tank is moving up the road and is engaging the soldiers around the infantry gun in the woods.

So there are two separate battles going on, this one and the one in the South, where I have a clear superiority but a problem of coordination. My plan is to finish off the Southern battle and then to move these forces North to help crush the Germans, especially if they decide to stay in the forest.

Henri