| And then everything happened faster
than you imagine. Within minutes all hell broke lose. Initial sound contacts were reported from the
woods in the east. In the northern part, the forward team
heard a tank and a halftrack approaching the area, while
in the south a column of at least four halftracks seemed
to be closing in.
Click on Image to Enlarge
A column of halftracks seems to be
approaching. While the rifle squad is hiding, the .30 cal
MG opens fire on the leading halftrack.
Unfortunately, just as in real life,
Combat Mission doesn't tell you REALLY what is out there.
Instead, I as the player get only the info based on what
my soldiers on the battlefield see or hear. So while my
MG team is thinking that it is shooting nice holes in the
thin armor of a bunch of halftracks...
Click on Image to Enlarge
...it completely missed the fact that
there is a German Panzer in the middle of the column!
Only after the first tank rounds whizz by, the MG team
realizes its mistake - and decides to hug the ground for
a while!
Click on Image to Enlarge
Halftracks with big cannons? No - it's
a Panzer which has not been spotted by my guys!
Luckily, the incoming fire misses (but
not by far) several times and none of my guys is hurt.
It looks like they even achieved their main goal - stall
the column's advance - since it stops shortly before the
clearing. If the Germans now dismount to send their
infantry forward and clear the woods around the clearing
first, then the first part of this tiny task force's goal has
been accomplished. Note also, BTW, that while the last
halftrack seems to have passengers, the first three do
not have. It might mean that they are either not what
they seem to be (halftracks) or that the infantry has
been dismounted previously. Or - of course - that my guys
are simply half-blind and didn't see the mounted infantry
yet...
But there are more surprises from the
very beginning. In the center, in the big gap between the
forests, a Panzer accompanied by some infantry is
spotted. No identification has been possible yet, but the
infantry has already been pinned by some accurate fire
from one of my .50 cal HMGs. The Panzer stops right on
the edge of woods and just behind the house - if it moves
only slightly forward, my Jumbo should be in perfect
position to engage...
Click on Image to Enlarge
Come a little bit closer... juuussst
a little bit closer...
Last but not least there are some bad
news from the northern woods. The tank which has been
spotted there moves on the road in southern direction
towards the middle of the map. My Sherman on the southern
hill in hull-down position soon decides to open fire at
the accompanying infantry and the tank, but manages to
miss no less than three times. Enough to draw return fire
from the enemy Panzer... who places a round directly into
the Sherman's front turret, disabling one man but leaving
the tank fully functionable.
Click on Image to Enlarge
Missed! The explosion from the
Sherman's 75mm gun cuts some trees but causes no visible
damage... <bummer>
Luckily, my Sherman deliberately
buttoned up just before the enemy Panzer opened fire,
otherwise the hit might have had a worse result...
In the town, things do not remain quiet
for long either. While the northern platoon is slowly
sliding over the frozen river to the other side...
Click on Image to Enlarge
The green lines show orders of the
individual units to "run" to the location. The
brown line shows that the selected squad is in command
and where the commanding unit (platoon HQ in this case)
is located.
...and the half platoon is moving
downwards off the southern hill, the MG in the north is
taking some heavy fire from four different directions!
Within seconds, two enemy infantry squads and one MG
appear in the town's buildings and open fire at my MG.
But fire is also coming from the far east... from what
has been identified as a halftrack - however, that "halftrack"
seems to be firing HE shells!
Click on Image to Enlarge
The red line shows that the MG is
targetting the infantry squad. The yellow lines show
incoming fire. The generic German army symbol on the
extreme right shows that "something is over there",
but it has not been identified...
The MG hits the ground straight away
and is barely able to return fire. Luckily, the shots
from the "halftrack" are from over 1500m away
and are overshooting by 20-50 meters. Until now at least...
I hope that by the end of the next
round the two platoons I have sent forward will make it
closer to the town and be able to suppress the enemy,
giving the MG some room to breathe. The "halftrack"
doesn't worry me too much at this point - it is far away
and has little chance to hit such a small target... in
fact, it's good that it's trying to at all since it is
wasting ammo and might be distracted from the ambush
lurking a few meters ahead of it...
All in all it's too early to say
anything about initial contact. The fact that I didn't
lose one Sherman is pure luck, probably, and something
will have to be done about this in the next turn, but
really so far the intel is too weak to say too much.
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