Matrix Games Forums

Good day all,

Having successfully completed the tutorial, I'm moving on to my first real test - A time to Dance.

First glance is a intimidating, but it also looks like fun. Instead of jumping right in, I have started working through an estimate of the situation to figure out the best option to win this game. I will be posting my planning thoughts and then soem screen shots as I conduct my plan.

I hope you find this interesting ....

Enemy Forces

79th Guards Tank Division of the 8th Guards Army is attacking into West Germany
17th Guards Tank Regiment is leading the assault
Guards forces are elite forces – morale and readiness should be high
Equipped with the latest T80s and BMPs

Structure includes
3 Tank Bn
1 MR Bn
1 SP Arty Bn
1 AD Bty
1 Recce company



May have 8th Guards Army support
Artillery
Helicopters
CAS
Soviet artillery is already engaged – suppressing friendly forces


Friendly Forces

2nd Sqn 11th ACR has been hit hard by artillery fire

Force composition
A/2 Sqn – 10 M1A1 Abrams – starts to arrive 30 min in
B/2 Sqn – 9 Bradleys – starts to arrive 30 min in
C/2 Sqn – 9 Bradleys - starts to arrive 90 min in
D/2 Sqn – 13 M1A1 Abrams – starts arriving 50 min in
R/2 Sqn – 4 Bradleys and 6 Humvees
3 Mortars – arrive 70 min in

Tasks
Keep route 279 from Wulfershausen, past Rodelmaier and into Bad Neustadt under observation and fire
Maintain unit cohesion
Destroy enemy units

Terrain

Major river obstacle

Brend river comes in from the North and then heads West
6 bridges across the river
One far to the North of Bad Neustadt
Three East of Bad Neustadt
One in the Bad Neustadt
One West of Bad Neustadt

Four east-west routes
B279 is the key one
NES 5 to the North
NES 20 and NES 15 drive into Bad Neustadt

Built up area around key area of the map

Good day,

I would like to add a picture in a post, can someone remind me how to do this?

Thanks,

Mike

Use Post reply and not fast reply. The former has more posting options.

Okay, my memory is that I would upload a file and click embed in post and it would show up.

When I do a preview, this is not happening - I must be missing something....

So, how do I do this?

Thanks,

Mike

Mike, you add a picture to a post it as you describe it. Except that the preview won't show the image.

William

William,

Thanks for letting me know - have a good day,

Mike

Friendly Option 1

Friendly Option 2

Friendly Option 3

Enemy Option 1

Enemy Option 2

Thoughts

I want to go with Option 3 – but as this is my first scenario beyond the tutorial, I`m going to go with Option 1.

Soviet forces are likely going to be focusing on the two centre bridges, so I need to make sure they are blown

It will be a race initially to get forces in place to stop the Soviet attack

Need to strip Soviets of bridging equipment

Soviets have more fire support - Need to keep my forces spread out where possible
Not sure if I have the resources to do much Counter Battery (CB)

I need to aggressively push back any crossings of the Brend – the river obstacle is my best defence option

Now I get to play. I will post pictures and thoughts as the battle unfolds.

Pics look great. Planning always a plus. Happy hunting!

Opening moves - bridges are blown.

I was surprised by how quickly the soviets appeared.

An hour later ...

Things are going well. Soviet recce elements have crossed near the middle of the three blown bridges, but nothing too strong.

I need to be careful with my movement...

Another hour into the game and I'm holding strong. I have all my forces in play now and most are in their planned positions.

I'm happy with my plan. By the way Option 2 would have been a disaster - with no bridges blown by the time the lead soviet forces came near them....

Thoughts after 2 hours

Blowing the bridges was key
It bought me time to get forces in place
Presents a strong obstacle to base the defence on

I need to be more careful when plotting movement of my forces
I have moved them into bad spots to engage the enemy too often. Not a good idea

Reserves
Need to plot where they will be used
It looks to me after trying to attack near Heustreu, the Soviets are going to try to force B4 in Bad Neustadt, being a TR, they will be bringing lots of tanks into the fray
So, I will plan out routes for the reserve to move toward the B4 bridge
I will put a delay on the movement, so that they do not actually move until I’m convinced they are needed, but once I decide to launch them, I want them moving quickly.

Fire Support
Wish I had more, lots more. Oh well.
I need to place smoke to use the advantage my tanks have in their sighting systems