Mini Hofen AAR by Daz

[dazkaz15]

The fusiliers are just recovering from a retreat at the moment, they are far from spent yet.
they only made contact with the Stuarts about 10 min ago.

What do you think should be the outcome between 3 very well entrenched Stuarts, and 2 not very well trained infantry Coy's, in this situation?
The infantry Coy's definitely have the equipment to take them out, and the visibility is so bad that the sheer number of men would be all over the tank's entrenched position I would have thought, and over run it.
The 2 Engineer Coy's are too far back for mutual support in this Visibility as well.

There is something very wrong with the survivability of these units for sure, and as you know, some work on it has been done for the patch.
Even if its not fixed in the next patch completely, at least its a step in the right direction, and we are all aware of it now.

But from a historical view, do you know of instances where, tank positions, that were unsupported by friendly infantry, were over run by infantry at night?
Would they even bother to get into the tanks, or would they just defend the position with small arms?
I can't imagine they would be able to see a damn thing through their optics in moderate fog, in the middle of the night.

[Phoenix100]

The fusiliers are just recovering from a retreat at the moment, they are far from spent yet.

There's hope yet, then!

I was thinking more of the earlier damage done by Stuarts, holding everything up despite you pouring arty fire onto them etc. But in this circumstance I would have thought, as you say, there is plenty of cover to approach to AT range, and when they're entrenched/dug in they can probably see even less, certainly to their flanks. Myself, I would have thought 3 Stuarts with no foot support, attacked in poor vis by 2 Inf cos, the Stuarts should up and run, to be sensible.

That said, I'm not actually sure the patch has dealt with this kind of instance - the complaints that fed into their work were concerned with the strength of other armoured units, versus armour, not with stuarts versus infantry, I think. We might just have to write off those Stuarts as very courageous, and the germans as not too committed. In Hofen in RL, of course, these VGDs didn't do very well at all....

[dazkaz15]

Yeah its a difficult call in this instance.

If I was playing Allies here I would be very disappointed to lose the 3 Stuarts, with the Engineers, and the TD Bn (without any AT guns left) being so close.
Lets see how they hold out.
We have a few hours before daylight yet.

[dazkaz15]

Slide 34

[dazkaz15]

Slide 35

[dazkaz15]

Slide 36

[dazkaz15]

Slide 37

[Phoenix100]

When will you put in the assault on Mutzenich? By night? And what units are you planning to use?

[dazkaz15]

Sorry Peter I have been mixing up your questions with the attack on Mutzenich, with the current attack on Monchau.
Ill put that one down to my dyslexia [:D]

The next phase of my battle will be the consolidation of the objectives gained so far.
For the coming daylight hours there will not be much movement at all from my forces. For one they are tired from the night attacks, and for another I don't want them to be seen, and come under Allied arty bombardment.

I now have something the enemy wants back, so the initiative is now in his hands.
I am expecting counter attacks, that I will be absorbing (I hope) from good defensive positions in the villages, and the town.

Come last light, if my troops are sufficiently rested, I will mount a regimental size attack on Mutzenich (possible entirely under AI control), supported by at least another Bn.
If they need to rest then I will schedule the attack for a few hours before dawn, so they get some rest through the night. I will try to ensure that the assault is well under way before the sun comes up.

One of the other Bn's will be sent to Kalterherberg to gain control of that objective at the same time.
If all the attacks go in at the same time this will dilute the effect of the enemy Arty as it switches from one target to the next, and prevent it being such a big problem.

I still expect to lose quite a few troops on this final assault however.

[dazkaz15]

Sorry to pester you guys, but I would like some feedback on whether you would like me to continue with the small unit actions, with the roughly one hour updates, or would you rather I jump ahead with say one update every five hours or more, and only cover the major actions?

[Phoenix100]

Whatever you have time for, Daz. I like the detail, myself.

[dazkaz15]

I happy to continue as I am. Was just concerned that people might find it boring, is all.
Slide 38

[loki100]

aye, I appreciate the way you are doing this, the detail is great to show when it is really useful to take command at below battalion level but you are putting that into the wider context

[wodin]

The effort you put in is admirable Daz and it's a shame there isn't an AAR award event somewhere!

[Phoenix100]

Yep. An award would be in order.

I really most like the detail, in fact, which is what brings it alive - watching how they struggle with one or two stuarts etc. As soon as the patch is out I'm going to do this scenario and see what happens...

[dazkaz15]

Thanks guys, really appreciate the support [:)]
Its very inspiring to know people are enjoying it.

Slide 39
Edit: Just remembered about the Light Armour Pl (1 Stuart) that slipped through in slide 28 and added that to the Tac map.

[deltanine94]

Very enjoyable read!!!

[Phoenix100]

Is any of that on the list for CO2, Daz? I don't recall. I agree it would be great.

[dazkaz15]

Dave has mentioned incorporating zones of control before, but I doubt very much that will be in the patch, or that his idea of zones of control is the same as mine.

Being able to see the route taken by supplies will be though I think, but not the ability to change its route.

Most of the stuff I have suggested is quite a major feature change, and would be very unfair to expect the guys to work on it for free, and pump it out as a free patch.
I'm sure this kind of thing will have to wait for engine upgrades, that will bring in some revenue for them, so they can continue to work on more upgrades, for us.

Some of the work for the basic drawing tools that would allow this has already been done in the Map Maker.

The major river layer for example, with some: if, then, else, type conditions, and a change of colour to red, could substitute for enemy locations, for purposes of preventing resupply from being routed though it, if it was incorporated as a drawing tool during the game,

I'm sure it would be far more complex than that to pull off, but you get the idea.

[dazkaz15]

ORIGINAL: deltanine94

Very enjoyable read!!!

Thanks deltanine94, glad you are enjoying it [:)]

Slide 40