Kampfgruppe Student:
The appearance of the Americans to my rear has completely unhinged the defensive deployments I have made. The end will be extremely swift and relatively bloodless for the Americans as they are able to steamroller my forces with overwhelming numbers of men at close range.
I have ordered my men to re-orient and to move even deeper into the buildings in an attempt to cause as many casualties as possible but it only delays the inevitable. That new company has robbed me of my chance to attrit the Americans by forcing them to advance towards my positions over open ground.
The surrendered American unit on the bottom left of the picture is the crew of the M1919MMG which surrendered to my forces some 10 minutes ago. How things can change in ten minutes eh? This picture shows the cost of city assaults quite well actually. The Americans have rushed the house with what looks like two entire platoons but I am certainly taking my toll. Two enemy units have been pinned by fire from my rifle squad and platoon HQ and I have noted others taking casualties also.
Well, house fighting is certainly a very costly and intense business. Whilst one enemy platoon appears to be moving on through this complex and towards the one next door one platoon remains behind to tackle my remaining infantry. As you can see in the top left above one of the enemy infantry squads appears to have panicked and run from the building. I must have caused it heavy casualties.
As the fight continues a flurry of units are "knocked backwards" by casualties. What this means is that every time a unit suffers a casualty in Combat Mission the graphical representation of that squad or team jerks backwards as though shot itself. I am certain that I have caused a dozen or so casualties to the American commander’s assaulting forces here which is good since I need to whittle down his forces as best I can.
This shot is taken from the American perspective just after the single survivor from what was, just 40 seconds ago, a nine man pattern 1945 rifle squad surrenders. This leaves only his platoon leaders to continue the fight. It will be a short hopeless fight and, since the rifle squad and its leaders is Green I don’t expect them to last very long or extract much of a toll. This shot also shows to good effect the fleeing enemy infantry and the sheer number of infantry units Martin was able to push into the building.
The other two complexes have not been assaulted yet but I expect Martin to push his numerical advantage home as quickly as possible before I can possibly re-orient to provide adequate cover for what are now exposed flanks.
Anyone for another Rorke’s Drift? This shot shows nine Fallschirmjaeger (including Lieutenant Student) facing down at least a company of American GIs. Quite sensibly I am considering pulling these units deeper into the building where they won’t be as susceptible to suppressing fire from other American units and should be able to extract a reasonable toll.
Overall the situation in the town is desperate. The appearance of the American company to the rear completely destroyed any chance I had of creating a reasonable delay and, currently, I am condemned to completely writing off the town and inflicting far fewer casualties than I had expected. The last few turns have seriously jeopardized my ability to win this game.
Kampfgruppe Vossen:
Kampfgruppe Vossen has run into a minor anti-tank ambush but due to the fact that the enemy Sherman is still shelling them and the fact that Kampfgruppe Vossen’s men are pathetically incapable "Green" troops what should have been a simple walkover is turning into a major fight. As the Volksgrenadiers are being pinned by bazooka and rifle fire the tank is happily lobbing accurate HE fire into this confused mass and causing unacceptable casualties.
The concentrated tank fire breaks most of the two companies of Volksgrenadiers and they rush away from the ambush in panic. Not only do they behave in a cowardly manner but they also abandon their platoon leader. He is quickly despatched by American fire and suddenly a leaderless, abysmally trained and badly shaken Volksgrenadier unit replaces an organized Volksgrenadier unit which I was depending on to help me fight my way through the American MLR in the village.
The two shots above show the advance of another Volksgrenadier squad towards the raging firefight near the multi-story house. I have ordered it forward since, unfortunately, my first attacking wave has been almost-annihilated and I want a few more infantry in place to help with mopping up.
Kampfgruppe von Kelly:
This was the state of affairs at the beginning of the turn. My half-tracks were advancing slowly under covering fire from MGs and tanks but my infantry assault was being cut to ribbons due to the presence of far more Americans than I had expected.
I decided to press the attack by advancing my HTs almost to the wall itself and pouring extremely close-range MG fire into the American positions and had all four of my tanks blanket the scattered trees with area fire HE shells.
SS Unterscharmfuhrer Altschuler’s (funny name ;-) ) Panzergrenadier squad is dashing for the cover afforded by the low-lying wall but with several MGs and infantry squads directing all their fire on him (the yellow lines) his situation looks poor.
The strength of the enemy fire surprised me very much. I had thought my preparation would shake them much more than it apparently did. Still, my veteran Panzergrenadiers are performing wonderfully and have driven right into the American position by the end of the turn.
A quick check of the state of the various units shows just how heavily I have paid for my advance. It would appear that I have lost fifteen men in this single dash. The survivors, including Altschuler are attempting to crawl towards the cover of the nearby trees under heavy fire.
The strength of the enemy fire and the losses it inflicted surprised me greatly. For next turn I have thus decided to move my tanks and SPW 251/1s closer to the enemy positions so as to increase the effectiveness of their fire. I will break this American position and am determined to kill or capture all of the defenders.
Kampfgruppe Backe:
I have included this overview shot to help people keep track of the situation at the start of the turn in an attempt to cut down on any confusion which might otherwise occur. Obviously I have cut out anything which is not in the immediate vicinity out of this shot.
Well, it would appear that the remaining American units on my southern flank are determined to inflict as many casualties as they possibly can before dying. The remaining Mg and bazookas resist manfully.
This shot, taken from the perspective of another SPW 251/1, shows a bazooka being fired at a (from this perspective) hull-down SPW 251/1. For ease of viewing I have circled the SPW 251/1 and the bazooka with a red circle.
A second later, from the perspective of the Panzergrenadier squad which is marching along the road to get into the battle, we can see the SPW 251/1 blowing up and adding yet another funeral pyre to mark the trail of the unfolding battle.
While I am annoyed that Martin has managed to kill yet another SPW 251/1 it will not prevent the rolling up of his forces on the hill and their neutralization. It will, however, hurt me when it comes to assaulting the village as I’m counting on my SPW 251/1s to lay down a suppressive fire for my assaulting infantry.
This shot shows the advance of my SPW 251/1s towards the hill in support of my infantry. It seems that the bazooka shot above was the last display of effective defiance made by the Americans.
As the SPW 251/1s advance the American platoon leader suddenly surrenders. With their leader gone the rest of the Americans surrender only seconds later. This shot shows the remnants of my Volksgrenadier platoon advancing on the American machinegunners position and accepting their surrenders.
American resistance has collapsed quickly but not cheaply. It has cost me at least 3 SPW 251/1s and has gutted a Volksgrenadier platoon and the Panzergrenadiers which accompanied them. All in all for the loss of a platoon leader, 2 bazooka teams and a couple of machineguns Martin has slowed my advance and inflicted a fair amount of damage I can ill afford.
I really am beginning to understand why man-portable AT weapons were so effective. It is impossible to spot two men hiding beside the road in some trees or a house until they fire. When they do fire they often claim a vehicle and a valuable squad before being killed or captured. If one slows down sufficiently to clear each little hollow or clump of trees then one allows the enemy to strengthen their main line of resistance as well as calling down artillery on your position. It’s really a case of damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
As my Panzergrenadier platoon advances down the road following the capture of the remaining Americans I have ordered it to enter the small dip in the ground in which the American tank was previously hiding. By waiting there while I bring up reinforcements and re-organize they should be out of sight of any American direct fire. As a precaution I think I will also order all the American prisoners to enter this hollow also so as to discourage the enemy commander from ordering an artillery barrage on my position. Of note: NO enemy units are firing on the Panzergrenadier platoon which is in full sight of any enemy units on the extreme south of the map. I can take it, from this, that no more enemy machinegun or infantry squads remain on the extreme south of the map.. It’s probably crawling with bazooka teams though.
This end of turn shot is an answer to one of the mysteries which confronted me earlier. As my SPW 251/1s advanced down the road one was destroyed for no apparent reason. I saw no bazookas being fired, no artillery, no tank shells or anything and couldn’t imagine what happened. After capturing the 0.5 calibre MG unit at the termination of the red line though it is obvious that the 0.5 cal MG must have taken out the SPW 251/1..
If you want fog of war you got it.. I STILL don’t know what’s killed some of my units and in this game I can only assume that the 0.5 cal HMG killed the SPW 251/1. Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t but, for the moment, I’m assuming that’s what happened since it fits the facts currently in my possession. Of course, it should be noted that I’ve only found this out now, several minutes later. I don’t know how I didn’t lose even more SPW 251/1s to the 0.5 cal HMG fire… I either got lucky or really suppressed that position very well.. Martin should have placed a platoon in this position. With its HMGs, bazookas and supporting tank this position was a potent anti-SPW redoubt. Unfortunately for Martin it didn’t have sufficient anti-personnel firepower. Martin does seem to have a penchant for creating either strong anti-tank or anti-personnel positions but seems to neglect co-locating these forces.
I must admit though that his idea of placing MGs in positions from which they could provide grazing fire over the entire width and depth of my penetration was excellent. It forces me to advance with armoured vehicles in the lead if I don’t want to expose my infantry to the attrition which long-range MG fire will cause. This, of course, is exactly what Martin wants as his bazookas will attrit my vehicles and allow his far more numerous infantry to meet a vehicle-less and numerically inferior infantry force. I do think he has been remiss in not pulling his machineguns across to the east side of the river and siting them in houses by this time though.
They could really hammer any forming attack force if they were safe in the houses but, as it is, I need only drive my tanks up to them and machinegun them and their crews (mental note to self: yeah but Martin’s probably placed a load of bazooka teams there to get you if you do that…. Retort: Yeah but that infantry squad you placed in the house right beside the river hasn’t seen any bazooka teams. It has only seen MGs so its probably a risk worth taking.)
Still, I guess that just comes down to our different playing styles. I prefer being on the defensive and letting the enemy come into my killzones and plotting for "discovered flank shots" as the enemy manoeuvres against one position. Martin seems to like scattering units all over the map to simply attrit my advance. It is effective but it guarantees the loss of these units to my advance, as witnessed by the fact that I have already captured 29 of the 43 enemy soldiers against which I have committed major forces. Not only does Martin lose these forces, he ensures that their exposed positions guarantee that large numbers of them will surrender. Two-thirds of these exposed forces have surrendered to me rather than continue fighting. If they were in the midst of a company’s mutually supporting defensive redoubts I imagine they would have continued fighting for longer and thus inflicted even more casualties upon me. I’m also mystified at the "stand and die" nature of this outpost line… It seems to me that Martin MUST have known two or three turns ago that his southern force was doomed and could have used that time to withdraw much of it to ambush positions further westward.
It’s always interesting to see different styles of play though. Martin certainly isn’t doing what I would do in this situation but it is effective. I’d love to see how he copes with one of my ambush specials though ;-).
