Pied Piper of Hamelin Take 2

[blackcloud6]

(Cross-posted from my CSW blog. Some explanations are geared for folks not familiar with the game)

I just finished my second playing of "The Pied Piper" scenario from FPC:RS. This time I got a "Contested Battle," a draw. The game ended during a furious house to house battle in Hamelin when the this time the Russians went below 30% forces. I was about to also go that route, but he commies broke first.

This time I had a Panzergrenadier Company team forward to blow the bridges south and west of Hasperde and a Leo I heavy team to blow the bridges at Afferde and Am Schecken. The Panzergrenadier team accomplished their task well while the Leo I Team only got the bridge blown at Afferde.

One of the PzGrn platoons got beat up and retreatied in the high woods NE of Am Shot and thus were able to observe Soviet bridging operations and call artillery on them. This neat the Russian MRBs up badly especially at Hasperde.

it ;looked like the main effort was coming toward Am Shot so I sent PzGrn platoon to Am Shot to observe while screening the Rohrsen an Afferde approaches. I planned to bring the Leo II company in in Hamelin over-watching Am Shot and getting the Commies in a kill zone. the M113 company was to dig in on the southern bridges of Hamelin.

But the plan fell apart when the Leo II company arrived and went into screen orders. They needed to be in a Hold order but the only way to do that is either a direct hold order (and thus they cannot move) or an assault order where they would move slowly and since they were coming from off map they would never get there. This is going to be fixed in the next patch as you will be able to give move orders with a final posture order (thus you could order a hasty move flowed by a hold order).

The Russians appeared in mass and this would have been a wonderful target for 12 Leopard IIs but they fell back instead obeying their Screen orders which are the default at end of a move. This resulted in a Soviet penetration of Hamelin and a swirling tank fight in the city. Both sides took great casualties and I got killed (again). But the Soviets tried hard to assault towards the Weser River bridges through my infantry and got hit by tank platoons on both flanks; their casualties mounted and the remnants started falling back when the game ended.

I'm glad that they are fixing the posture orders. I also would like Company HQs to be represented by two units : a TACP and an HQ. Right now the Co Cdr's combat vehicle is n the same unit with the First Sergeants trucks, and the trucks slow down the HQ unit. In reality the TACP (Commander's fighting vehicle) would be off at the front with his FISTV while the first sergeant, Supply sergeant Commo Sergeant etc. would be in the rear with the gear. (Matrix Forum readers, I will address this a separate post.)

A much better showing this time but still didn't win. I think the collapse of the kill sack due to the Screen order default played into that.

Final situation picture is attached.