CA2 Battle Tested

[djoos5]

I finished scenario two of the Hell on Wheels campaign with a Marginal Success 67% - and I have to say, I am okay with that! [:D]

Quick synopsis of the game which will be given based on the two maps I have attached. Let's start with the northern map:

First, it was a pretty big stretch of front that needed covered and the VP locations were pretty much centered in the map along this front. So, I positioned my command units toward the center and north (as the highest value locations were here). I had two groups of Air Defense units and so divided them between north and south. All tracked units were positioned along roads and highways so I could MOVE-Hasty and get to the VP locations. Of the six locations, we captured five before initial contact was made.

The long river valley that leads to Sittensen was my assumed enemy route. I decided to get fast moving units to the VP locations first, and all other fighting units I positioned along both sides of the valley, so as to be able to fire down on any oncoming enemy.

The Soviets didn't disappoint me.

BMP's and BMD's started rolling up the valley, spotted by my Kiowa scout helicopters, and unfortunately they made it to the 1000 VP location south of Kalbe before we could get there. What was worse, six Soviet helos followed close behind and they started attacking. It was terrible - in the first 28 minutes of combat, they took out two platoons of Abrams. I was thinking my strategy to move up hasty might have been unwise.

Soon though, after a terrible onslaught from the helicopters, they disappeared and the Soviets continued to press forward towards Sittensen. Another fear was bothering me that if the Soviets had air support, my units were tightly packed around this city and we would be bombarded into oblivion. Fortunately, except for the choppers no other air assets appeared.

It became a slug fest to see if my forces could hold, or if the Soviet hammer was tough enough to push us back. Well, there are a lot of little red crosses that proved that sometimes you can't break through.

[djoos5]

To the south, my strategy was different. I figured that this, too, would be a good direction for armor to come from due to the good roads. So, after the preposition, I once more raced my troops east to get to Lauenbruck. My goal was to destroy the two bridges in the river valley and so bottleneck the Soviet advance between the forest and the river.

We once more made it to the key VP locations and I got two platoons of infantry near the bridges. I gave commands to demo the two bridges, but unfortunately it was going to take at least a half hour. I knew that was going to be a problem and it turns out it was.

I positioned my Abram platoons along the high ground of the valley while the engineers worked. I also gave orders to destroy two more bridges and try for a third - if the first plan failed, I wanted to use the rivers to my advantage as best I could.

Well, the Soviets caught my engineers at Lauenbruck and Stemmen and drove them off. They also drove my Abrams back, which were doing a lot of jockeying around - I think the orders they had made them fire and move (not sure if that is what SCREEN order does). Well, with the failure to blow the bridges, my infantry began hasty work on the bridges on the next river and destroyed two of them. Now, if the Soviets wanted to get to Hamersen (and the 1700 VP location) they needed to weave around rivers or use just one bridge.

As I said, my Command HQ was in the center of the map and I needed to make sure the area was held. My Abrams did a great job, even though they took some serious pounding. There were two nice hills near Stemmen that I figured would be great for M1 overwatch - unfortunately, the Soviet helicopters came from the south, too. Needless to say, my armor died on those hills or beat feet as quick as possible.

The good news was they Soviets wanted Sittensen more than Hamersen and as you can see by the red crosses, pushed north between the forest and the river. At least that worked with me being able to herd them onto a killing field.

We managed to hold all VP locations but one and reduce the Soviet army to less than 70% of its starting VP's, but the costs were high. Still, I call it a good victory and we lived to fight another day! Well worth staying up until 3:00AM to see it through!