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Kampgruppe Student:
The enemy seems content to hold
their distance for now and pound me with artillery and long-range
rifle fire as he brings and more and more forces to bear. I can
now say with certainty that at least an entire company is
advancing across the frozen river directly towards the village.
Northern
flank
I have suffered some severe
casualties already, primarily to his artillery barrage.
On my northern flank the rifle
squad which I had kept in position trading shots with the enemy
platoon on my northern flank has been all but wiped out.
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Initially Schreiber’s
squad was subjected to fire from the entire enemy platoon,
supporting machineguns and at least one mortar. Unsurprisingly
the squad panicked and abandoned its position. Due to the extreme
range the enemy infantry were unable to take mow down his troops
as they fled from the house but it is only a matter of time until
the cacophony of mortar, machinegun and rifle fire directed at
this squad claims more lives. I do not expect anyone to survive
from this squad
Click on Image to
Enlarge
"In this shot you can
see Schreiber’s squad running for the nearest trees and can
see the pockmarks made by the mortar rounds as they hit home all
around the house he had just been occupying."
Southern
flank:
Again his artillery has begun
to range in on my forces. So far I have been subjected primarily
to mortar fire but have been fortunate enough not to sustain any
casualties. However, once mortar fire is called casualties
inevitably follow unless I abandon the position.
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Another mortar shell
impacts directly in front of my central Fallschirmjaeger squad
killing one of its men. It is time for my sham withdrawal.
With this in mind I order the
squad in the centre of my defensive line to stage a sham
withdrawal. They will withdraw towards the town centre but stop
and hide as soon as they exit the northern side of the house,
hoping to lure the American forces into an assault.
As far as the American
commander is concerned he will have seen two squads retreating
from their positions and will only see one Fallschirmjaeger squad
still holding its position. I am hoping that he will become
emboldened by this and advance.
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As can be seen above in this
shot taken from the vantage point of my central Fallschirmjaeger
squad an advance by the American forces will bring them
inexorably closer to Obergefreiter Jens and his flamethrower.
Once they are in range I hope to shock and kill large numbers of
them with fire from the flamethrower and then rush my
Fallschirmjaeger platoon forward and either kill or capture the
rest of the enemy.
Of note in the above shot are
the American soldiers’ heads which can be seen where my
cursor is on the left and the American soldiers visible on the
far right. As can be seen any advance will bring them right into
my sights. I fear this force is purely a holding force though so
it is imperative that I destroy them, regardless of the cost so
that I can redeploy to face the primary American assault.
My only worry is that the
mortar fire is only the first installment in the enemy’s
indirect fire plan. If heavier rounds should hit whilst my units
are in the open conducting the sham retreat or the counter-attack
I could be severely hurt. Again though, there is nothing I can do
about the enemy’s artillery so I will do what I consider
best to defeat his ground forces and just hope for the best.
Kampfgruppe Carius:
Kampfgruppe Carius’ main
thrust down the northermost path heading directly westwards
continues. It is extremely slow going as the infantry are having
a very difficult time moving through the heavy woods. Still, so
long as I amn’t taking losses and I am able to prevent his
force there from causing me trouble elsewhere I will be happy.
Click on Image to
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Click on Image to
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"In some of the shots
which Martin and I are posting some of you will notice that the
number of trees in various parts of the forest keeps changing.
This is because, in Combat Mission, it is possible to play with 4
distinct levels of foliage density. It can range from having no
trees visible (this yields the highest framerate but you miss out
on some great views) to having a forest so covered in trees that
even seeing units can become difficult."
Above I have shown the last two
options, namely, moderate coverage and full coverage. As you can
see with moderate coverage all units are still quite visible
whereas with full coverage units start getting obscured by the
sheer volume of trees present. Personally I prefer playing with
moderate trees on most of the time since it gives me good unit
visibility, a great view and great performance but no doubt
everyone will have their own preference. So, if you see the
number of trees varying markedly from screenshot to screenshot
its not a game bug but merely because Martin and I are changing
the density of trees in-game.
Carius’ StuG managed to
knock out the remaining Sherman mere seconds after the turn
started. In the picture below you can see the Sherman at the
moment of death and, with a green box around it and a cursor
below it, Carius’ StuG.
Click on Image to
Enlarge
After destroying the Sherman
Carius began to move slowly forward again, searching out more
prey but, unfortunately, his StuG III has become bogged down in
the deep snow just off the road. I am fortunate that he hasn’t
been immobilised fully but, at the very best, it will be some
minutes longer before he can move again. I am ordering the nearby
squad of infantry to set up a defensive line protecting him from
any infantry attack which might be launched from the forest and I
have ordered Kampfgruppe Carius’ main thrust to speed their
advance so as to ensure the pinning down of the enemy force
nearest the StuG III.
There is little more I can do
but hope that Carius’ StuG III can be re-mobilised. It is a
lesson well-learnt. At present 2 SPW 251/1s and 1 StuG III are
bogged down. That is an unacceptably large portion of my force
and so, from now on, I will attempt to stick to the roads even
more than I otherwise would.
Kampfgruppe von Kelly:
There is very little to report
here. My bogged-down SPW 251/1 remains immobile and is reduced to
watching the action evolving around it. That doesn’t mean it
can’t see some spectacular sights though ;-). In the picture
below you can see my Panther moving off the road so as to gain
clear LOS to the enemy Sherman (which the StuG is also targetting).
The Panther has just fired at a far-away enemy machinegun
position which has begun pinging rounds off its front and side
armour.
Click on Image to
Enlarge
As can be seen below the true
effects of the three-dimensional nature of the map become evident
when plotting fires and trying to figure out where and how one
should move. By moving just a little southwards off the main road
my Panther got clear LOS to the Sherman (which had by this time
been knocked out) and also to some of the enemy infantry which
are assaulting the town. Perhaps a little direct fire would hurt
them. In fact if you go to the description of Kampfgruppe Student’s
woes and look at the picture entitled "bombardment1.jpg"
(the first one) you can see a shell exploding inside the American
positions. This was actually fired by my Panther a few seconds
after I took the shot below.
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I have decided to test the are
to my front for anti-tank ambushes by pushing a single SPW 251/1
straight down the main road and behind the hills to my south
which have been my Phase 2 Panzergrenadier objective all this
time. If this SPW 251/1 survives then I will begin running more
SPW 251/1s and infantry down the road and towards the hills and
the route of Kampfgruppe Eberbach over the next turns.
Kampfgruppe Eberbach:
Kampfgruppe Eberbach’s
advance continues with startling effect. I’ve been
practicing my Panzergrenadier/half-track combined advance
recently and it seems to have paid off. An American squad has
surrender to me intact. They haven’t taken a single casualty
before surrendering which is a first. Of course, while they didn’t
suffer any casualties they were the sole target for 5 machineguns,
close to 3 squads of infantry and a StuG III for close to thirty
seconds. I can’t say I blame them for surrendering.
Click on Image to
Enlarge
You can see three SPW 251/1s,
a StuG III and one and a half squads of infantry in the middle of
the clearing in this shot. Other units are present but are
obscured by terrain, e.g. an SPW 251/1 and one and a half-squads
of infantry have just popped out of sight behind the house in
front of the US infantry.
NOTE: Note the artillery shell
dropping out of the sky on the extreme right of the picture. You’re
going to see more of this particular shell soon.
Click on Image to
Enlarge
The explosion doesn’t
show up as well in this jpg as it does on my monitor BUT what we
have here in the centre of the screen, ladies and gentlemen, is a
treeburst. The shell hit a tree and has exploded at least 20
metres up into the air scattering shrapnel and wood throughout
the area. Fortunately I didn’t take any casualties due to
this particular shell.
Click on Image to
Enlarge
I took this overview shot
at the end of the turn to show the general layout of my forces in
the clearing. As you can see my half-tracks and StuG III have
outrun my infantry support so I am going to basically halt them
in place until my infantry can move through them and begin
clearing the forest ahead. I can’t imagine the US commander
would leave this clearing under the supervision of only an
infantry squad and a medium machinegun. There must be at least
another two squads somewhere out there and I’m going to make
it my job to find and kill them.
Conclusion:
All’s well with my war.
One SPW 251/1 in the clearing has become immobilised due to the
terrain but apart from that my relief forces are in great shape.
I lost one man from the MG 42 team in the clearing this turn to
return fire from the American infantry squad but overall I have
killed three tanks and captured 17 American infantry for the loss
of only 3 infantry from the relief force.
I am more concerned about
Kampfgruppe Student. It appears that his artillery is beginning
to engage me there and I can expect to take heavy casualties when
it is fully brought to bear. The progress of my relief force is
relatively slow and I feel I need to begin taking more chances to
get some more infantry into the village as quickly as possible
while I still have a viable defensive presence. I’m worried
about the village. If I lose a platoon of infantry to a
combination of his artillery barrage and his southern flanking
force I will be facing a reinforced company with heavy weapons
support with at best two platoons.
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