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My hat's off to you for this one Wild Bill. I have actually only finished the first battle and got a decisive victory out of it. If the rest of the campaign is anything like this fight I could be in for a divorce(oh well!) Seriously, it was a very enjoyable battle. I was 'mildly' shocked when I found out what those panzer IVs were backed up with! Nasty, but I heard somewhere that's a trademark of your campaigns.

Just so you know, the highest kill score was J3 Sgt Phillips Abn squad(aux) with 13. This total included 4 panzer IVs, 3 stug IIIs and two GE engineer squads in one turn. Boy I wish I could keep these guys!

My core unit with the most kills was B1 Sgt Hernandez M4a3e2 Jumbo with 12 kills. This inculded 4 panzer Vg(3 of them in one turn!) 2 panzer IVs, 3 half tracks. He pretty much stopped that counter attack dead in its tracks by himself.

Sorry for being so long winded but I had to tell you how much this campaign is. And that's only after one battle.

Keep'em comin'
Perry
pro patria

Great going, Perry! You did extremely well. Those Jumbos are really some great tanks. Though actually they were not available that early in the war, I don't blame you for choosing them. Desperates situations require desperate measures!

As the intro file says, "You've got a long way to go to get the Rhine and a couple of million of Germans in between."

Before it's over, you are going to think that they are ALL in your battle sector

Good hunting my friend. Thank you for this fine note!

Wild Bill

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In Arduis Fidelis
Wild Bill Wilder
Coordinator, Scenario Design
Matrix Games

I also have some U2R comments to make, as I've got 4 battles done so far. Now, to be nice, I'll give a spolier warning here, for those of you who haven't played it yet

Firstly, as others have said Wild Bill, awesome campaign. It's quite addictive, too

Now, onto comments, etc.

My TF, TF Archer, did well at first, with DVs at St Mere Eglise, and then again at Carrentan.

Then we went on to Berigny, where I got a draw. And I deserved that draw, too. Minefields killed 6 of my tracks early, and wiped out my battle plan. I adjusted, but, didn't have the speed to cover the map well, and only got two VHs. However, early in the game, a weird thing happened, twice, and I want to ask about it here.

On turn 2, and again on turn 3, one of my Sherman's - a different one each time - gained 99 suppression at the start of my turn somehow. Now, there were no nearby Germans, no arty fell on them, no one spotted them. While it wasn't a long term factor, it was disconcerting. Any one have any ideas why? Or how to avoid it in the future?

Now, my failure at Berigny led me to a breakout scenario - which, by the way, is a way cool idea! It's been my fave one so far in the campaign. For those of you that haven't played it, here's the deal. I needed to move my TF from the Berigny area, to a small town to the northwest, hold the Vhs there - which were by turn ones, and get as much of my TF off board through the town as possible.

I got a marginal here, which leads to my next question/comment combo - and this is not a criticism, it's more me trying to understand the mechanics of the game better.

Here's what happened. The scenario is 15 turns, my delay vs thier assault. Three exit VHs for me, 3 200 per turn ones in the village. I got the 3 by the turn ones on turn 5 or 6, with a small group, and set up a defense, while waiting for the main body of the TF to get there.

On turns 9 and 10 I stop a german infantry attack on the perimeter and on turn 11 the game ends. I think this was the case because they had no VHs and it was late in the mission.

However, in effect, what it did was deny me the chance for a DV, because I lost four turns at 600 VP/turn, plus whatever I got off map.

Now, I'm not complaining - the scenario is great, and I'd love to see more like it - but, I am curious as to how the early end problem can be nixed in that kind of scenario. One idea is to let them have a VH, and take it back late. I don't like that idea, though.

Another idea I came up with is to give the attackers, in that kind of scenario, an invisible, 0 point, VH. Any other ideas?

On a side note, I'm kinda curious what people use for OOBs in U2R, so I can compare with what I chose If anyone wants to post thiers, I'll post mine, too.

Alexandra

Thanks, Alex. I'm glad you are enjoying it. Actually, you are doing just fine.

Your questions, the tank suppression and the premature ending of the game, I don't understand either.

I don't like the scenarios ending abruptly. Now if it is any consolation, the game is supposed to give you victory points for hexes held as though it went the full length. That is what I am told.

What may have counted against you is that the units you did not exit from the game counted points against you.

From what you describe, that is not your fault. You had intentions of holding the VH till the last minute, then exiting under fire.

I would not have expected that either. I'm sorry that happened. I'm glad you mentioned these things. If they can be fixed, I just don't know.

Good report, Alex!

Wild Bill

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In Arduis Fidelis
Wild Bill Wilder
Coordinator, Scenario Design
Matrix Games

Wild Bill: The SSS (Sudden Suppression Syndrome) has occurred to one of my tanks during the 'Watchword Freedom' campaign too. I believe it picked it up after a save.

Perhaps, what happened, is that we were playing a game, saved it, without exiting SPWAW, then came back to SPWAW and loaded the save again. I know one game in particular, that if you do what I just desribed will screw something up, for you need to completely exit the program and start it back up again in order to expect an incorrupt load off a saved game. You think I'm on to something?

You could very well be, Charles. I'm going to try what you suggest and see if I can reproduce it. Interesting... I still haven't seen it yet, but it's worth a try.

Oh, and keep me posted on your progress, fellas!

Wild Bill

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In Arduis Fidelis
Wild Bill Wilder
Coordinator, Scenario Design
Matrix Games

Originally posted by Alexandra:
<SNIP>
On a side note, I'm kinda curious what people use for OOBs in U2R, so I can compare with what I chose If anyone wants to post thiers, I'll post mine, too.

Alexandra

A0> US HQ
Bx> M8 Greyhound recce sec (2x M8)
Cx> Arm Eng platoon
Dx> M4a1(75) platoon (5x tanks)
Ex> US Inf Platoon
Fx> US Inf Platoon
Gx> US Inf Platoon
Hx> Us Inf Platoon
Ix> Scout (3x teams)
J0> Sniper
K0> Sniper
L0> Sniper
M0> Sniper
Nx> M9 Bazooka platoon (3x teams)
O0> FO (observer)
P0> M16 SPAA
Q0> M16 SPAA

The survivers with over 20 kills appear in Tankhead's Hero's page [url="http://tankhead__1.tripod.com/"]http://tankhead__1.tripod.com/[/url]

I love posting this stuff.

I just did U2R again. Here was my latest OOB:

A0
2 Sections of M4a1 76mm (the cheapest tank with the 76mm)
2 Sections of M4 75mm (the cheapest tank - period)
2 of 2 each Arm Inf squads

Here's how I buy (2) Arm Inf squads - what I do is buy a sniper as a place holder - then purchase a bunch of stuff to get my available points down to about 60 points or so. Remove the sniper - select the Mech Inf Platoon. If you look at the Mech Inf Platoon the first two units in the platoon are.....Arm Inf Squads. Purchase the Mech Inf Platoon. Since I don't have enough points for the entire platoon - the game gives me what I can afford, which if I have done the math correctly, is (2) Arm Inf squads. This keeps my unit selection order (A0, B0, C0,....and so on intact (it does play havoc with the upgrade/repair screen - units are scattered all over the place). However it does give me the units I want.

2 Section of jeeps
2 sections of MMGs
1 FO
12 Recon teams
1 section of jeeps

Here's how they looked at the end:

A0 - M4 HVSS
B0 - 4 Pershing
C0 - 4 M4 HVSS
D0 - 4 Arm Inf
E0 - 4 Arm Inf
F0 - 4 M4a3a(?) - best Sherman with the 76mm but not the HVSS (these were the jeeps)
G0 - 4 Arm Inf - (the MMGs)
H0 - FO
I0 - 3 M12 155mm SPA (recon teams upgraded to SPA)
J0 - " "
K0 - " "
L0 - " "
M0 - 2 Ammo Trucks (Jeeps too)

None of my AFV went to elite (shucks!) - However, I had 3 of my Arm Inf go Elite! I can't in good faith submit them to the Hero's Page (it's the third time I've done the campaign - so I kinda know were all the surprises are).

I also experienced a sudden decisive defeat on battle #5 of the U2R campaign (the one where you needs to capture the 3 hills). I used the support point to purchase gliders and drop 2/3 of my forces to the 4 rear objectives while the other 1/3 assault the front hill. I set the gliders to arrive 1 turn after the initial bombardment.
However, after the gliders arrive on the second turn, the game suddenly ended with a decisive defeat for the US.
After 2 successive reloads results in the same defeat, the game crashed. When I opened it again, and load up the scenario, the game continued normally this time and I got a decisive victory for my trouble.
Campaign results so far
4 decisive victories
1 marginal victories.

Well, I'm zipping right through U2R - one advanatge of being a housewife

Since my last post, I've pulled off three more scenarion, all DVs, and just finished thr third of them - which was the fight in Paris, so my total thus far is 5 DV, 1 MV, 1 Draw.

Here my OOB as started - and as now:

A0 - HQ.
B - 1 Platoon Shermans. They started as a1's, and are now 3 Jumbo's and 2 a3's.
C - Another Sherman Platoon. Again, they all started as a1's, and are now 3 a3's,1 a3(75) W, and 1 JagdPanther. To explain the last, in the fight for the three hills, it came rolling up the road, a baz team hit it, did nothing, and the crew bailed, right into rifle fire. At the end of the battle, unscratched, it was laying there, and, well, it was just too tempting to not add it, as I'd lost a Sherman. And, both the Soviets and Germans liked to use captured tanks, so why not the Americans

D and E are boty Rifle Platoons.
F is my Engineer Platoon.
G was my AT section, but has since been broken up to give each of the three above platoons an integral Baz team.
H and I started as snipers, but, after each sniper died - and taking the massive loss of exp, etc, I converted them to an armor support platoon of one M4 (105) and 1 M36 Jackson.

The breakout mission is still my fave with Paris second.