Campaign AAR

[Alexandra]

Hi everyone. I've decided to try a different style of AAR by doing one up for my own playthrough of the Stalingrad Campaign.

These will proabably be longer than my normal AARs and comments between chapters, so to speak, are welcome.

Core Force, Kampfgruppe Falcon

HQ, KmpfGrp Falcon (Col von Weiss)
Engineer Company (Cpt Telner)
1 Mech Scout Plt (2Lt Falkenburg)
1 Platoon Mk IVf2(s) (1Lt Briel)
1 Platoon T-34 M40 (1Lt Stolz)
1 SP mortar Platoon (1Lt Funck)
1 37mm Flak section (2Lt Krause)
3 Snipers

OOB Notes: My engineers in my OOB are customized, changing a shotgun for the normal ranged weapon, making them better in close in action.

Mission One:

Date: July 16, 1942
Location: The Don Basin

Support Forces: 3 battery 75mm field howitzers, 2 trucks for the AA guns.

Aux Forces: 1 section PSW-222s, 1 section Mk IVe, 14 halftracks, 3 flak truck, 4 trucks, 2 50m ATG with transport, 1 FO with transport, 2 Stug, 5 Mk IVf2, 1 pioneer platoon, 1 command car, 2 88mm AA/AT guns with transport, 5 Pz IIf, 2 Stuka, 2 Bf 110d ,plus 105 and 150mm OBA

Mission: The mission is to advance across the steppes and take a small town near the river.

Objective areas: There are three copses of trees, one gorge, a hill to the south, and the town.

Operational Plan: I plan on using my own core to take the two southern woods. After that the infantry will advance for the town, the panzer will move to screen the hill. Aux forces will take the north woods and gorge. AT guns will cover from the woods once secured as an overwatch element. Artillery will be liberally used to disrupt the Soviet defense.

Pregame: We preplan arty strikes on each of the wood corpse with a full 75mm battery, while attached 105s and 150s will hit the town.

Turn One: The the north the attached forces begin to move towards north woods. Enemy tanks are spotted and kill a PSW class armored car. We shift ATGs to a hill overlooking the enemy tanks, getting one in position and deployed. We kill 2 T-60s with tank fire. Other forces advance without contact. More fire missions planned on the woods. *** Large enemy tank forces advance from the vicinity of the hill near north woods and the gorge. We estimate both advances to be in at least company strength. We kill a T-60 to the north and a T-26 near the gorge.

Turn Two: We get the second ATG deployed. In fighting against the north armor we kill 6 T-26s and a 2 T-60s, including the first kills by my core units, and lose a Mk IV. Against the gorge armor we kill 5 more T-26s. *** Russians advance fairly agressively, though they lose 2 more T-26s, a T-60 and a BA-10 to the north as well as a T-26 in the gorge sector.

Turn Three: In the north we KO two more T-26s and a BA-10 and forward deploy one of the ATGs. We overrun a rifle squad in north woods. However, we lose another PSW, this one south of north woods. We damage two T-26s of the gorge detachment while infantry deploys to enter center wood. *** As we have troops moving into all the woods, or soon will, we shift arty back to hit the gorge and town with HE, and the hill north of town, where I'd have long range direct fire weapons if I were the Russian commander, with smoke. *** The remaining Soviet armor advances. To the south we lose a halftrack, and they lose a T-26 of the gorge element. Our forward ATG begins a duel with a KV class tank.

Turn Four: Multiple units engage the KV managing to kill it's radio mast as we forward deploy the other 50mm ATG. Another enemy squad is destroyed in north woods. Armor enters the gap between north and center woods and kills a T-26. We begin to engage the enemy in center woods as well and kill a T-26 behind it. *** The Soviets advance further, but only end up losing 2 T-26s and a BA-10.

Turn Five: A Mk III arrives and is sent south, to screen that way until the T-34 platoon can clear out the last of the center T-26s. To the north, a Pak 50 kills the KV with a flank shot. North woods falls, it's last defenders being killed. A small security team will be left here, as we'll form up to advance on the town. Our exploiting armor moves deeper, preparing to move to the gorge area. In center woods a squad is destroyed. We keep directing arty fire against the town and hill. *** The enemy advances in the south, losing 2 more T-26s, and two more KVs appear in the north, where they kill an AA truck.

Turn Six: More Mk IIIs and 2 88s arrive. The Mk IIIs follow the first ones, the 88s head north, towards the KVs. To the north, a 50 malfunctions and is destoyed while being withdrawn, along with it's halftrack carrier. I get hit with the malfunction again, as a flak trucks' flak cannon goes down. We kill a T-26 behind center woods as the north woods team gets sorted out. The exploiting armor column pushes deeper. Heavy fighting in center woods causes both sides losses, but an enemy squad is destroyed. My T-34s advance, engaging the last currently known T-26. Heavy fighting starts in south wood as well. *** Fighting continues in center wood with the enemy taking the worst of it. Lt Briel's Mk IV is knocked ouy by an ATG, but he and 2 crew survive. The enemy is attacking, in the north, with T-34s led by the 2 KVs. More armor has been spotted to the south.

Turn Seven: To the north our armor duels the enemy counter attack. We lose a flak truck but get the 88s set up. We also kill a T-34 and a KV. However, the presence of the armor forces me to loop my infantry through smoke to the south, thereby delaying thier advance on the town. We take the gorge and dismount snipers to find that AT gun. Center woods falls to my engineers, and they'll begin to sort out next turn to continue the advance. My T-34s turn southeast, behind south woods, angling towards the hill objectives. Scouts accompany them and the tanks kill an enemy squad. 3rd platoon is taking heavy losses in the fight for south woods, but finishes off another squad. The flak gun I moved south kills a BA-10, and the Panzer IIIs arrive there, to screen my flank. *** To the north all goes fairly well as the enemy attacks. We kills 4 T-34s, though an AUX Pz IV is killed. However, the enemy ATG has killed two more tanks, including another core Mk IV. Luftwaffe strikes disrupt the north attack column. We also kill a T-26 to the south.

Turn Eight: To the north we kill another T-34. Looks like there are 5 T-34s and a KV left there. In the center, the engineers remount to head for the south side of town. Fighting continues in south wood as we destroy another enemy squad. We detect another large scale counter attack from the south, but have our own T-34s to stop it, as well as the Mk IIIs, and the 88s once the north attack is polished off. *** We lose yet another tank to that ATG.

Turn Nine: In the north we kill a KV and 3 T-34s. I believe that the north attack is about finished. We advance towards the town, inf and scouts in the lead. We also kill the ATG. *** The Russian south attack races north. We lose two scout tracks to the south, they lose a T-70 to the Luftwaffe.

Turn Ten: The last north T-34 is killed. The 88s load up and start to move south. To the south, we lose a T-34, while declaring south woods functionally secure. *** The enemy attack moves north. It loses 2 T-34s but kills two of my own T-34s. It also loses a T-60 to 3rd platoon in south woods. That attack is becoming worrysome.

Turn Eleven: We lose our last T-34 to the south. We start to vector all of our remaining gorge panzers south. Things are better in town as we destroy another ATG and two squads at the north side.*** They drive towards south woods with the armor, but lose three tanks in the woods to 3rd platoon.

Turn Twelve: We push into town from the north, and further south in town, kill a MG nest. Both 88s deploy in initial firing positions. 3rd platoon kills a T-34 and disables a second. *** The enemy counterattacks in town with at least a platoon backed by a KV. To the south, we kill a squad, 3 T-34s and a T-70, but lose a Mk III, and 2nd Squad, 3rd Platoon, is overrun.

Turn Thirteen: Heavy fighting in the city costs us a halftrack and 1st platoon HQ squad and them a rifle squad. In the south fight, we kill a T-34 and lose a Mk III. The engineers kill another T-34, and reinformcement panzers eliminate an ATR team and a T-70. We're winning, sort of, on the south. It looks like the enemy has just three tanks left. *** We lose two tracks in village fighting, and a Panzer and 3rd squad, 3rd platoon to the south.

Turn Fourteen: We kill a T-34 in the woods and a second near the north edge of the woods. However, in some good news, 2 scout teams have snuck across the field, over the hill, and taken the south hill objective. We also kill a KV-2 in the village, though I doubt I can take it all. *** To the south we immobilize a T-34, and at the village we destroy an ATR team as they continue to counter attack.

Turn Fifteen: In the woods we destroy the damaged T-34. In the village we kill a squad and the other KV-2. *** They start to fall back.

And the scenario, which I think is to short to begin with, ends a turn early.

Results: Draw 6046 (me) to 3493.

Losses: 253 men, 1 Arty, 10 tracks, 18 AFVs. (Germany)
477 men, 3 Arty, 59 AFVs
(Soviets)

Comments: I think I did well, since I was making an assault outnumbered at least 2 to 1, instead of having the 2-1 numerical advantage an assault needs. I think that this needs to be about a 20 turn scenario though especially with the additional op fire opportunities of 5.01. My initial stratgey worked perfectly, though my arty didn't seem to supress anyone, not even infantry that were under constant bombardment for an hour. However, the shotgun using engineers did quite well.

I also want to note that even though I would have like more time, I don't view that as the only reason for the attacks failure. I did get conservative on the village approach, and relied too much on my arty to so disrupt the defenders that I'd walk into the town. Those were errors I made that helped to cost me anything better than a draw.

Alex

[lnp4668]

Great AAR Alexandra. I also only manages a draw since I decided to bypass the wooded areas with most of my mobile forces to focus on the village. The game ended with one of my platoon of engineers get bogged down trying to disloge the Soviets from the center most wood (I agree with you that the scenario is a bit short)

My core force:
2 platoon of pfIVf2s
2 platoon flampanzer II
1 Company of engineers.

I decided to suspend this campaign while waiting for the patch. In the meanwhile, I started on the Long Victory campaign and is currently on my 10th consecutive decisive victories. I used rangers exclusively in that campaign. Have to love those guys, a good match against any infantry and great tank killers to boots

[Alexandra]

Thanks for the compliment. I actually came out of it better than I thought. None of my tank crews were killed, and my T-34 platoon has the most kills in the TF - and are still in T-34s, though, hopefully, soon, Pz IVs.

I'm looking forward to playing my next Stalingrad fight and will report the results here

Alex

[Tankhead]

Great AAR Alexandra!

Reading your AAR and I felt I was there with you . Great report.

Tankhead

[Alexandra]

After accepting my dressing down from General Jaenecke, the IV Corps commander, we took the town that night with a coup de main. Then, I began to put the group back together. We quickly remounted the T-34 platoon by repairing abandoned tanks from the field of battle, as my mechanics are used to working with them. My manpower losses were quickly replaced, though we are still down a scout team and a scout halftrack.

Battle Two:

Date: July 31, 1942
Location: The Don Basin, Russia

Support: 1 Bty 105s, 1 infantry platoon.

Aux: Lots of transport, 1 pioneer platoon, 1 Flak Panzer section, 1 mech recon platoon, 1 81mm mortar team, 1 SPA section, 1 panzer section (1 Mk II, 1 mineram), and luftwaffe support.

***

I stood, with Captain Telner, overlooking the village we'd been ordered to take. It was a typical Russian villiage, wooden houses with a single stone church. However, it also bordered a swampy morass with two bridges, a road and a rail, and those were our targets.

"What do you think?" I asked.

"Well, Herr Oberst." He was used to calling me Herr, we'd been fighting together since Poland. "It will be hard, I think. I'll mass the infantry, and move in from the northwest, taking the town by storm."

I nodded. "I'll put the Mk IVs to the north, to cover the orchard area, and the T-34s will go south to screen the fields. They'll need the flak guns, in case of enemy infantry."

He nodded, as I added "Artillery is yours to call and contol. No fire within 100 meters of the bridges, no luftwaffe with 200. We need them intact."

"All right. I'll coordinate the inital bombardment, and bring the bombers in over the village as we assault. The Stuka's we'll hold."

"Good luck, Hans, and be careful." I told him, as he moved towards his CP and I went to brief the panzermen.

***

Pregame: Artillery began to land on the village as two DO-17s came in. One laid down it's bombs ok, reporting seeing a concrete emplacement on the ground. However, the other fell victim to enemy flak.

Turn One: Recon elements leapt forward to be our eyes while the infantry and armor moved up. No enemy yet sighted. *** Enemy outposts and snipers begin to engage our forward recon elements as well as the PzGren platoon.

Turn Two: Panzer overwatch elements are in place, augmented by flak trucks, and soon, guns. The PzGren's overrun an outpost in a farmhouse and move through the fields towards the church. Two of my platoon dismount near an orchard, preparing to use it as cover to get to the village. 3rd Platoon, still assimilating the replacements from the last fight, is my tactical reserve. *** Soviet units and outpost keep up a steady harrassment fire.

Turn Three: 2 self propelled guns and a fire control officer from Corps arrive. All overwatch elements are in place. A recon track is damaged but Soviet infantry start to come under fire and fall rapidly back. We have a track immobilized by mines, and lose another to a close assault by a sniper. (I thought that was gonna be fixed in 5.0 ). However one of my own snipers, Lt Stumpf, kills the enemy sniper. *** Enemy harrassment fire continues.

Turn Four: The pioneer platoon arrives. We overrun an outpost and kill another sniper in the church area. Along the main assault area, another outpost and 3 rifle squads are destroyed. Two more are driven back with losses. However, due to sheer stupidity on my behalf we lose a track. *** Enemy ATGs and AA guns damage a pair of scout cars and the PzGren's take losses near the church.

Turn Five: Heavy fighting at the church leaves a PzGren squad nearly gone and a Russian squad destroyed. We kill an ATR team to the north, but lose a sniper, Lt. Petereit. We call in the Stuka's to hit suspected enemy artillery emplacements. *** Additional fighting in the north and at the church. A track is damaged by AA fire.

Turn Six: Enemy cyclists and tank(s?) approach from the south, but the T-34s are ready for them. There are, in fact, a platoon of T-70s and another of BA-10s. They should be easy kills for my -34s. We shove a squad back south of the church. In the north, 2nd platoon destroys a squad and takes the northern soviet defensive position (a VH). 1st Platoon moves towards the concrete emplacement and the road bridge. *** Aitstrikes disrupt enemy mortars, and in fighting to the south, we lose 3 tracks, and they lose 2 BA-10s.

Turn Seven: We kill a T-70. 1st Platoon destroys a squad and the concrete strongpoint. *** The Soviet's start to counterattack in force, and we lose a pioneer squad near the church.

Turn Eight: We kill a squad in the church. We destroy another with 1st platoon and another with tracks. *** The Soviets surge forward agressively. However, we repel the attack, wiping out four squads and killing a BA-10 and a T-70.

Turn Nine: We take the church, killing 2 squads and losing one. A squad is killed to the north, and 1st platoon kills another T-70. 3rd platoon finishes off two more squads as it advances into the fight. *** An additional squad is killed near the church as 1st platoon comes under fire from the first bridge.

Turn Ten: We lose a halftrack to an anti-tank gun. We lose another to mines. *** More infantry fighting and another dead halftrack, this one to AA fire.

Turn Eleven: More fighting, during both turns, that effectively just raises the casualty count.

Turn Twelve: We kill a rifle squad near the church. We kill the enemy HQ and a squad, but lose 1st Platoons MG team. We also kill a bunker overlooking one side of the road bridge only to find another on the far side. *** Yet another enemy squad attacks the church.

Turn Thirteen: We take the road bridge, and, perhaps, next - last - turn - will get the rail one. *** We repel two more attacks on the church, and lose 3rd squad, 3rd platoon.

And, again, the scenario ends a turn early.

Again, a draw. I lose 151 men, 8 tracks, and a plane. I kill 308 men, 3 arty, and 5 AFVs.

The campaign, at this point, is starting to become frustrating. Again the scen was too short, especially given the map and fortification levels. All my Aux infantry, 2 whole platoons, never got past the church as there was always another counter attack agaisnt it. So, in effect, I had to take 4 VHs, each protected by a platoon of infantry, plus 6 bunkers/MG nests/plus AA, plus AT with 3 platoons. I may end up shelving the campaign, at this point I'm not sure.

[lnp4668]

Great strategy Alexandra. I finished the battle last night. I did it a bit different, however. My forces consist of:
1 battalion Stug40 ausf F8
1 company of engineers
1 under strength company of mechanized rifle (my euphemism for 2 mechanized platoons)
3 sections of recon patrols as Stug riders.

Since I expected most resistance to face west, I send all my forces, including auxillaries along the open plain in the north, playing to my strength in armor. I then proceed to take the hill to the east and charge the town from behind. I manage to broken the soviet on turn 10 since their force rush to take back the eastern most objective, running into my tanks and engineers behind the ravine that divided the town. It was a slaughter as my stug and engineer took them at close range, while a platoon of stug on overwatch on the easter hill wipe out the reinforcing trucks and light tanks. However, it takes a suicidal charge by the auxillary engineers to take the two western most objectives on the last turn. I managed to preserve all of my Stugs and majority of my infantry however only manage a marginal victory most likely due to my use of the auxillary halftracks to rush for the last two objectives.

I agree with you that the entrench soviet infantry are extremely difficult to dislodge and are deadly against our infantry if not sufficiently suppress. However, the next battle is river defense, which I hope will be a turkey shoot, so unless your force is decimated, I hope you will continue on. Good luck.

[A_B]

My force composition an tactics were nearly identical. Once i had the east side of the town under control, i brought in the airstrike. After this, my mech forces drove into town right past all of the suppressed russians. I was able to capture 75% of the village in two turns.
Mel has set up the russian defenses in a very reasonable way. It is up to the attacker to exploit the terrain. Frontal assualts are very avoidable until you get to the heart of the city.

PS. try a glider attack on kurgan hill. it was gripping, yet very fun.

[Alexandra]

Thanks for the comments.

I agree that the defense Mel's set up is reasonable and quite realistic.

My main gripe is time. The scens are too short. If I were to replay it, I too would do a loop around the north side, but I don't like risking armor to mines if I don't have to

And my shotguns make it pretty easy to supress infantry, though it does make it harder to supress bunkers.

As for gliders on the hill, while I agree it's a quite imaginative tactic, and probably quite fun, I'll pass Paulus didn't have gliders and even if he did, after Crete, OKW wouldn't have let him use them.

Alex

[lnp4668]

Hmm, I wasn't event thinking of mines as I rushed my tank column through the open plain. I guess it was a good thing that Mel didn't seed the area or I was lucky (most likely the latter) The scenario definitely was too short to have to clear the way with engineer. It took me 3 turns to get across the ravine at full speed.

[A_B]

the only reason the fields would have been strewn with mines is if mel wasn't trying to set up historicaly. A few in the gulley, maybe, but the russians didn't have time within the context of this scenario to mine the entire board. Hence they would've kept the mines closer in to protect the village. That was my reasoning in flanking, and it proved to be correct.

The gulley wasn't that much of an obsticle. It seems to me that gulleys could/should be more difficult to cross than they are (at least sometimes). What would people think if dragons teeth or wire were added to gulleys, to slow/stop travel until engineers did some work? i am planning on using this technique in my campaign, with the intention of simulating steep gulley sides, which can be traveled, if 10-15 min. of work is done. This would be solely to prevent rapid flanking manuevers which can otherwise be unrealistically effective. comments?

[Alexandra]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by A_B:
[QB]the only reason the fields would have been strewn with mines is if mel wasn't trying to set up historicaly. A few in the gulley, maybe, but the russians didn't have time within the context of this scenario to mine the entire board. Hence they would've kept the mines closer in to protect the village. That was my reasoning in flanking, and it proved to be correct.

Well, I don't know about the north, but the south and the town itself had enough mines to keep my tanks pretty stationary.

As far as time, I'd think you could lay mines a lot faster that build bunkers. In fact, at Kursk, the Soviets had engineer units that were trained to wait to see which way the Germans were moving, move a few miles ahead of them, and lay a hasty mine field in minutes.

[Alexandra]

Here's the next segment.

After securing the bridges, though not as smoothly as I liked, I was back in some semblence of favor with General Jaenecke. The town, and it's bridges, assisted the logistical lifeline of 6th Army. Once more we replace personnel losses, our scout platoon was back to full strength, and one of our T-34s was replaced with a Mk IV. In addition, one of our flak guns was upgraded to a mobile version, the Sdkfz 6/2. <I made an assumption here that had I gotten my last turn my halftrack next to the rail bridge would have driven onto it >

Battle Three:

Date: August 2, 1942
Location: The Don Basin, Russia

Support: Mines, 1 bunker

Aux: 2 FO's, 1 pioneer platoon, 1 SP mortar section, 2 MG sections, 1 rifle platoon, 1 scout platoon.

The Plan: My armor will screen my flanks, the bunker and mines will cover the ford directly, my core and aux infantry will act as platoon strongpoints to cover breakthroughs. I'll keep my own recon detachment and it's new platoon leader, 2Lt Rittenhaus, as my reserve.

Pregame: We plan out some initial harrassment fire designed to give the enemy second thoughts from the start.

Turn One: We destroy 3 enemy scout teams with our outposts, snipers, and the mobile flak vehicle. More arty's planned. *** The enemy surges forward in perhaps battalion strength. All along the line, though, he gets stopped, with heavy losses. Two ATR teams and 2 scout team are destroyed, as are 2 BT-7 light tanks.. However, we lose two snipers, Lt's Stumpf and Hummel.

Turn Two: Another BT-7 is spotted by a recon team and Sgt Yorck's Mk IV slides forward to try and ambush the smaller tank. We cause more casualties to the enemy and finish off one squad. *** The enemy continues to surge forward, well over a battalion now, including T-34 tanks. We kill many men, and one squad, but lose our mobile flak vehicle and a recon team.

Turn Three: We kill a few more Russians. *** The Soviets continue to attack taking appalling losses. They lose 2 ATR teams, 5 rifle squads, 2 T-34s, and 2 T-60s that were apparently beamed down as they appeared in my rear without crossing the ford. We, however, lose a scout team, a AA vehicle crew and a mortar track with all hands.

Turn Four: We kill three more T-60s, the platoon mates of the first two. We also immobilize a BT-7. *** The battle grows more intense, with the defense on the verge of collapse. We kill five more tanks, 3 T-34s, a T-60 and 1 BT-7. However, a lot of my squads are near destruction, we lose a scout team and all of my mortar tracks are gone. And, now, T-34s are in my rear, again without using the ford.

Turn Five: We kill another T-34 behind us. There is at least one more. I also order Recon Platoon to mount up and withdraw over the ford. They can't stop KVs and T-34s and at least something of the TF will survive if we totally collapse, which is quite possible. *** We kill a T-26 and another 2 -34s. But, at least half the defensive area is in enemy hands.

Turn Six: Recon Platoon disengages. We kill another squad, a T-34 and a BA-10 and cripple a second BA-10. *** We kill five more squads and a light tank in the heavy fighting while losing a MG team.

Turn Seven: 4 more squads die, three on the south, where 3rd Platoon and the T-34 platoon may have stopped the enemy. I think he's mostly beat on the north, as well, though, in the center we can still collapse at any point. *** The enemy keeps fighting. We kill a squad. We lose a MG team, 2nd Platoon HQ squad, and two of Lt. Briel's Mk IVs, one with no suviviors.

Turn Eight: We kill two more squads as 3rd Platoon and the T-34 platoon advances north. However, we lose another Mk IV. Even if we win this, it'll be too costly a win. *** We manage to kill a T-26 and a squad, though one of 2nd Platoon's squads is close to dead.

Turn Nine: We kill 5 more squads, though 3 of my own tanks get immobilized in the process. Still, the south is secure and the center almost so. We also kill one of the KV-2s. *** We kill two more squads while losing the crew of one of our destroyed panzers.

And, for the 3rd consecutive scenario it ends a turn early. Another draw - 4550 to 1579 - which means that with that one more turn I probably would have won a MV as I was close to taking back 2 of the 3 VHs they held.

Losses - Me 139 men, 7 AFV.
Sov. 671 men, 30 AFV.

Comments: I was dissapointed in the scenario. I was expecting to actually have to defend the ford, not fend off an attack from the opposite direction. I'm also getting quite frustated by the 1 turn early endings which have stolen one, perhaps two, MVs from me. With only getting 75 replenishment points, my TF is pretty gutted. The more I play the more I wonder if the campaign was tested at all under 5.0, which definately has enhanced the combat lethality and the AIs effectiveness.

Alex

[BruceAZ]

Hi Alexandra:

Good AAR. Ever thought of doing a battle in the Pacific area? I wonder how you will handle the Jap bunkers and die hard attitude. They are tough!

There is a Tulagi Campaign by WB and another of the Battle for Guadalcanal. The Guadalcanal Campaign is especially challenging anf requires above average tactics to succeed. If you get tired of European efforts, try these.

Bruce
Semper Fi

[lnp4668]

I know how you feel Alexandra, I was hoping to turkey shoot the Soviet as they cross the river, only to find out that I have to keep them from pushing me into the river. I wonder if High Command ever read The Art of War

I decided to spend the support point in mine, and since I notice that the visibility is only about 200 yards, I deploy all my infantry in a line across the middle of the area behind a line of mine. The Stugs and halftracks are right behind them. I think the limited visibility means a slugfest will transpire instead of a more mobile battle.

My tactic was the correct one as the Soviet came in mass wave against the middle of the field, but the combination of mine, infantry and afv fire kept them from breaking my line. I was lucky however, as one of my Stug broke under enemy bombardment retreat right in front of a flanking move to the north by 4 T60 and 4 T34. It manages to slow down the enemy enough for me to mobilize my Stugs and recons and retake the northern flank. I was able to achieve a decisive victory on turn 6 with the loss of 1 stug and 1 special ops troop that replaced an engineer squad destroyed in battle #2.

This shows that sometime it is better to be lucky than good

[A_B]

Excellent AAR. It almost makes me feel like i'm there
Inp4668, once again our tactics were nearly identical. I got the dec. v., but not as quick
I really screwed battle 5 up though. It was one of those times where stupid decision followed stupid decision. At least it was the auxillery forces that suffered the consequences. Battle five was a turkey shoot, but i had one good piece of luck, without which it may have gotten ugly. I don't want to give any details and spoil the surprise.

Alex, i think we are supposed to be frustrated in this campaign Hence the few build points. I'm looking forward to reading about the carnage in the city, both german and russian

[Alexandra]

Okie, a slew of replies

Firstly, to 5th Recon, I do plan on doing Guad after Stalingrad, unless MCNA comes out first

As for battle three, let me clarify. I don't mind the attack coming from the west, I just wish that the text file had been clear on that. After all, irl I could say "Herr General, which direction do we expect them from?" As many of the other MCNA testers know, that was always one of the things I harped on - make the briefing file match the battle, and, in this one, it really didn't.

Again, like battle two, this is one I'd fight differently were I to play it again, though, I suppose many commanders have said that before. I would, though, like to know if anyone else has seen the constant one turn early ending.

Alex

[lnp4668]

Actually the campaign ending on the AI's turn before the last turn listed seems to be a quirk of the game. In all battles that I've played, the game ended a turn earlier than what is listed in the info box. I noticed this in the long campaign also. So if the box says 1 of 20, I expected the game to end on the end of turn 19.

[Alexandra]

Yes, I'm a glutton for punishment. Here's Gumrak Station.

We held. At times it seemed we wouldn't but we managed to. However, the battle was costly in the extreme. I am quite unpleased at the lack of intelligence we were given and have expressed by displeasure to the brigade commander. However, Corps is happy with our defense. We are currently down three of Briel's tanks as well as the entire mortar platoon. I promoted Sgt Haefeten to Lt and he took over 2nd Platoon.

Battle Four:

Date: August 23, 1942
Location: Gumrak Station, Russia

Mission: We have been ordered to destroy an enemy AA position near a train station called Gumrak .

Support: 1 rifle platoon

Aux: 15 halftracks, 4 trucks, 2 mortar tracks, 2 AA trucks, 2 Mk IVs, 1 81mm mortar battery, 1 Sig II, 1 FO

The Plan: We will attack in a narrow front, like the enemy often does, and will try to use shock to destroy enemy forces.

Turn One: We take some long range AA fire, though we can't yet see the guns. *** We lose three scout cars to AA fire.

Turn Two: We advance into the teeth of the enemy fire having no other options. We lose an AA truck but kill an AA gun with the T-34s. We kill another, both on the west side, with multiple force elements. Recon teams discover an infantry position, so we have to assume the entire AA position has an infantry screen. There goes the shock plan. *** We take MG and AA fire and one of my tracks is damaged.

Turn Three: We kill an AAMG and 2 AA guns on the west side. However, we have one halftrack killed and another disabled. *** We take some long range MG and AA fire to no effect.

Turn Four: We lose a track to a HMG. Of course, though, none of the 9 squads and 4 vehicles - 3 of them recon one - that can see the HMGs firing hex can spot it. We kill another HMG using 4 tanks, 2 light vehicles and an AA truck. We kill an AA gun along the north side, but lose another track. *** We have a track killed by AA fire and a core scout car damaged.

Turn Five: Most of my forces shift to move into the west side where we've destoyed - we hope - the enemy. We also start clearing the north side infantry to allow my second, smaller, force to advance and join the main body. *** We lose a scout team and have a track immobilized in the north side fighting.

Turn Six: We kill the HMG team to the south that gave us problems on turn 4. We also kill two squads and drive back one more in the north fighting. My snipers kill the crew of an AA gun off, knocking it out of the fight. I think there are two more guns still on the north side. *** We have a scout car damaged by AA fire coming from beyond the woods and to the south.

Turn Seven: We destroy 2 more rifle squads and open the way deeper from the north. *** A T-34 is damaged by AA fire and one of our tracks gets repaired and is now mobile again.

Turn Eight: Scouts enter the wood and spot more AA guns and an AT gun. We knock out an AA gun to the north but lose a non core Mk IV to flanking AA fire. We drive on to engage the new enemy line. We kill the AT gun though a track gets damaged. We also kill two more AA guns. There is, though, at least one more. *** We're hit by 4 more AA guns and an AT gun. Two tracks are destroyed. An enemy infantry platoon is spotted.

Turn Nine: We KO one of the AA guns as well as a MG team. *** We lose a track to an AT gun.

Turn Ten: We advance and push back a squad with heavy losses and well as shoot up, but do not destroy, another AA gun. *** We lose a halftrack and a core scout track to enemy fire. There are still at least five AA guns, an AT gun and the infantry platoon.

Turn Eleven: We lose another track though we kill 2 AA guns. We take one objective hex. Probably the only one we'll get. *** We lose yet another track.

Turn Twelve: We kill another AA gun with infantry. We engage the AT gun. *** We kill a squad as it moves across open ground.

Turn Thirteen: We kill 2 more guns, a Maxim team and 2 squads. There's a tiny chance that if we get turn 14 we can get a 2nd VH. There's no chance at all for either of the station VHs though. *** We lose another track to AA fire.

And, again the scenario ends a turn early.

Again a draw, this time 1203 (me) to 2617 (them).

My losses: 146 men, 15 APCs, 5 AFVs.
Them: 175 men, 18 Arty. They still had 2 platoons and 10 guns on the field.

[lnp4668]

I wish I could write an AAR like you do Alexandra. I often gets so involved in the game, by the time I finished, I have forgotten to keep track of the turn by turn account.

This was a tough battle. I also decided to attack on a narrow front to the south since it seems the most direct route given the scenario time frame. My recon forces got pounded early from the AAA, but they at least was able to determine that enemy forces are composed mainly of 37mm. A quick intelligent briefing shows that these guns will not be able to penetrate the front armor of my Stugs, so I use my onboard artillery and dismounted infantry to create a wall of smoke to the north, protected my Stugs' flank while they thrust directly at the village, followed by the halftrack. I encountered a bit of difficulty with entrench soviet infantry in the southern ravine, but was able to penetrate then move northward within the village. I was glad to receive a marginal victory by turn 10 in this battle while losing two of my core halftracks and several recon groups.

BTW, I got a DV in the next battle due mainly to my Stugs are mostly at elite level by this time even though there was a surprise Your forces may have a harder time in this one however Alexandra. Good luck.

[Alexandra]

so I use my onboard artillery

I'm curious. What did you have for onboard? The 3 mortar sections I had did a great job, and if my SP mortar teams were still alive I'd have done better.

I really think that the spotting rules hurt the player in this scen. I can understand it's hard to spot, say, a 45mm ATG in the woods. I'd think, though, that a 37mm AA gun, in the open, with no cover terrain for 200 yards around it, at high noon, spraying fire right at you, would be a tad easier not to lose sight of

At least there were no mines.

Alex