You'll laugh - but the first thing I do is scroll around the map, desperately looking for any new tanks... result: nil :-( After cursing a little. I turn my attention towards the town first.
With the first platoons arriving in position, it is time to start finetuning the orders and check LOS and command&control. That invloves moving units to this edge of a house to get a clear firing field or move that unit over a little bit to get it under control of the Platoon HQ. What adds to the confusion is that now I also have to move around one or two dozen prisoners as well. I intend to round most of them up in the big central block house, but also put a few in the church... the key is to have somebody watching over them, because when they get too far out of US controlled territory, they might switch back to the German side (that happened to my MG team, remember?)
Two platoons are dashing for the southern hill and woods while the rest is taking positions within town. The prone soldiers in the eastern blockhouse and in the church in the background are hiding in position already. Hiding to avoid exposure to German tank and MG fire from far across the river.
Meanwhile, two MGs which I kept back in the south to support my attack on the town, move forward to cover the bridge and southern part of the river. It may appear that I am spreading my forces a little bit too much, but I do this for two reasons - to generate as many crossfires as possible, AND to avoid massing of forces in one point since I expect a preparatory artillery barrage on the town before the German counterattack.
One of the two MG teams moving forward in the woods south of town. This one already has a clear LOS to the bridge and surrounding area, but is still a bit too far away to lie down effective fire for my taste. The status window in the left gives the unit data.
Out of town and further east, the Germans are mopping up my defensive positions neatly (a German national trait I believe ;-)) and don't really seem to be in a hurry to advance on the town. The halftrack column on the southern road is moving slowly while I can see some infantry regrouping behind a small slope.
A German assembly area where my fighting position used to be and a few halftracks moving slowly down the road. I would love to shell the German infantry there, but it would take two to three minutes for my 105's to arrive (and my 60mm mortars don't have LOS), so I continue shelling the center. BTW, the last halftrack in this column is knocked out and the second one is currently being shot at by my Sherman.
But I do not intend to let the Jerries advance without punishment. I have an MG and mortar team positioned 300 meters to the south (together with a hiding bazooka team and Platoon HQ), and I order the 60mm mortar to open up on the advancing infantry.
Same scene as above as seen from the defensive position further south - the mortar team is ordered to open fire on the advancing infantry. Above the mortar team behind the trees you can barely see the hiding bazooka team and HQ unit.
Looking here and there and checking if my defenses are good enough to face the German armor on the rest of the map, I find that I am not happy with the two MGs setup in the center.
The .50 cal MG is not in optimum position, since the small slope on the right is blocking its LOS to the central road. I order it to move forward beside the MMG. If there will be enough time, I will probably reposition the MMG as well, but I don't want to risk moving both MG teams at the same time.
That finishes my orders for this turn. Once again the Germans will set the speed and all I can do is hope that my defenses will hold and delay them a few more turns to enable my "cavalry" to arrive. Only then, I think, I have a chance against those damn' Panzers...
Action phase
Looks like my streak of bad luck is over - against all odds the 105mm howitzers manage to land one round close enough to one of the halftracks to disable it!
The 105mm artillery round lands just a few meters away from the halftrack and knocks it out. Unfortunately it's impossible to show how the halftrack seems to bend to the side a little when the round impacts beside it. Even more unfortunate - the american POWs in the background :-(
But there is more good news!
As the enemy halftracks are advancing happily down the southern road, the leading vehicle comes to the T-junction near the building where my bazooka team is hiding. As it slows down to make the curve, the bazooka team (although ordered to wait in ambush) smells a sure kill and fires an AT rocket into the slowed down halftrack. At less then 100m distance and with the vehicle almost standing still for a few seconds, the bazooka team shows off what this portable AT weapon is capable of doing! Do I need to mention that I almost jumped off my chair and bounced up and down when I saw this :-)
The halftrack slows down to make the curve as the bazooka team (which was targetting the ambush marker beside the building) fires a rocket at the SPW. The round manages to clear the house...
...and hits right on target! After the hit and already on fire the halftrack still moves forward a few more meters and then finally stops. I can't show this with the screenshots, but it's a really nice detail in the game.
Shortly afterwards, of course, the enemy infantry and the following halftracks open fire at the bazooka team, but the distance is several hundred meters and they don't even manage to pin it down for too long.
Scratch two more halftracks! Yessir!
Anyways, in other places the going is still rough. In the center, the Germans seem to concentrate on the northern woods as the Panther and the infantry are moving forward. The only intact infantry team (a .30 cal MMG) is getting under more and more pressure from several directions. Most firghtening - the Panther tank inching forward through the snow.
The Panther is spraying the woods with its bow MG and my MG team (still without a casualty) is coming under more and more pressure. It does a great job of suppressing the enemy infantry around the farmbuildings, but soon I will have to relocate I guess...
But also around the town not everything goes as planned. While the platoon in the town are taking their fighting positions, the half platoon which I ordered to leave town and set up at the edge of the woods south of town comes under heavy MG fire from the enemy across the river. So heavy, in fact, that one of the squads is pinned and breaks for the woods.
Both squads are down to two-thirds strength (only two of the three soldiers normally represented are shown), and the right one gets pinned down from heavy MG fire (and a couple of HE rounds from the Panzers, too).
And since the others don't look back, the squad soon becomes seperated from the rest of the platoon and decides to break for the woods. No big problem, though, since I can order it to join the rest in the next turn (the squad didn't rout or something).
So all in all, this turn is two for me - zero for the Jerries :-) I probably could even fake a grin if not for the fact that I am still worrying about my tank reinforcements...
