Little AAR from recent CMBO game with Thor

[Deathdealer]

This was our 2nd try on each other one a custom map - ie 1600 deep and 960 wide (I think) ME. I autogenerated map in scenario editor, little adjusting to make it more "real" looking and bought some US stuff. Date was Dec '44 and then I sent the file forward for Thor to buy his stuff. He saved the file and started it as a PBEM - easy way to make somewhat customary map - one only needs to trust opponent not to peek on other players selections.

For 3000 pts 45 min ME I got:
2x reg US rifle coys minus MMGs, couple 60mm mortars and zookies
I did upgrade remaining 4 zookies into vet status though.
3x reg sharpshooters
1x reg US engineer plt with flamers
2x reg 4.2" FOs
2x reg M4A3(105)s
2x reg M4A3(76)s
4x reg M24 Chaffees
2x reg M8 Greyhounds
4x grn M21 mortar carriers

Map was modestly forested while there was one road going through whole map. Little village in the middle (see map). There was deadly quiet in the wilderness as some snow slowly came down from the sky...

The idea was to move on whole front with inf first and all other asset ready give suppressive fire. One FO to northern side and one to southern side. As I was afraid of long range hitting power of Panthers I did mostly fast runs with my armor from behind trees or building into similar spot.

First 10 turns went almost without an incident though Dave unleashed one Lynx to scouting job. It was KOed on 2nd try as we tried to tcp in early game and as we lost connection we had to back few turns. I bet Dave didn't like it as Lynx did evade all my efforts on the 1st run.

I was getting little worried as I hadn't encountered any inf by turn 15 and almost instantly sky ROARED !!! THE DREADED NEBELWERFERS !!! Luckily I lost only maybe 10 men to their scattered fire and I believe Dave will avoid buying them in forthcoming fights - their aim is awful.

As it turned out Dave had let me approach mostly unchecked hoping to cause major damage with artillery before moving up to finish my force. I believe this wasn't so good idea as in point wise he'd have to attack 1:1 but with rockets that was basically only way to go. As I had secured almost all flags I started to get some inf icons - and more - and more - and MORE - AND MORE !!! The whole map seemed to come alive - this was giving me fits. All that infantry and I had meagre 7 plts. What the heck - there must be a battalion of some sorts - and so it was - full Volksturm battalion !!! That meant 4 coys of 3 plts of 4 squads and 4 schrecks ie 48 squads and 48 schrecks against my 21 squads and 4 zookies.

Luckily those turned out to be greenies and that was my salvation - almost that is. I repeatedly annihilated approaching wave after wave - 4.2"s were great but I think Dave started to respect mortar carriers too. He did tease me about taking those in our first fight as he obviously didn't give them much value. So I took 2 then and now 4 - and seemed to me though losing 1 all other 3 emptied their ammo just nicely on his men. The key is to fire-reposition-fire-reposition and so on...

Maybe around turn 20-25 I faced lonely PzIV as my first serious armor threat. I believe Dave was getting angry about my mortar carriers and tried to take southern ones out. I got quite lucky when dealing with it - one mortar shell got TC, M4A3(105) busted one building and finally M4A3(76) saw through opened lane and delivered poor PzIV from this plane. Little later on northern side Dave move StuH to help his forward sweeping inf as those too had come to face mortar carriers - quite a nuisance (?). With some fun fast dashing and smoke screening I blocked the LOS from it but with plain stupidity lost one M4A3(76) still. What saved my day was single zook that took StuH out 2 seconds later it had killed my Shermie.

About that time I faced a new threat - a CRACK KINGTIGER !!! It forced me to dodge this way and that with my Chaffees and other troopers - at this point those schrecks started to count. They popped up from all over the place - and I started losing Chaffees pretty fast. At one point when I tried to dash forward to get into KTs butt (no, I'm not THAT kind of guy) it faced about 10 schrecks - endresult was swift and just...

Little by little I was deprived from my armor support - Greyhound down, 3 Chaffees, previously mentioned M4A3(76) and single M21 mortar carrier. Little by little my forward line started to bend - and twist - and yield. Somehow my men did hold on - I think my FOs played a BIG role here as without them Dave would have flooded my positions for sure. I unleashed my last shell in turn 40 and then it was time for prayers - HOLD ON MEN, THERE'S NO TURNING BACK !!! Referee will come and save you in just five more turns.

What a fight those last turn played out to be !!! Dave was forced to bring KT forward to help his greenies in assaulting my most forward flag - big heavy building which was defended by 2 brave inf plts. They were helped with single 105 swinging Shermie and some last Chaffee shells just out of reach to his schrecks. Still seeing something like a coy of inf icons piling against them - and then another coy made me tremble... how could they stand ?!?!? All the ammo has gone, they are basically defending that building with grenages - and probably throwing some brick from crumbling walls too. On turn 44 KT was brought up just next to the very building - and still my men fought - grenades flying from second store windows on top of the monster - blinck, blonck - NO EFFECT AT ALL !!!

Other side of map had similar situation - I had dashed engineer plt into forward little forest in hopes that their satchel charges would come handy. Even with my last 4.2" shells onto approaching enemy didn't stop Daves relentless advance. Finally my engineers were swept away on turn 43 or so but I do believe that they did take some enemy inf out too - at least all satchel charges were spent. In game terms they did buy me at least 5 minutes delaying time. From there on my second line of inf had to keep on fighting from little forest patches next to small flag. Luckily I got some help from 105 swinging friend to even odds - still seeing closer to 20 inf icons in that forest was dreadful situation. And I had a meager single inf plt holding the flag with my last shocked Greyhound giving some MG help !!! On came the last turn...

[Deathdealer]

Battle map - north is up

[Palantir]

Good stuff :thumup:

Nice to "read" how others are doing in CM.

Kerry :cheeky:

[Deathdealer]

Final turn saw Dave dashing forward with his KT - and even though I had expected it he did manage to steal the big flag from my grasp in the middle of village!!! I doubt it would have survived one turn more (I had one flamer about 25m away and 105 Shermie was aiming its side) but with CMBO one can manage this kind of feats. In CMBB with variable ending fight continues sometimes closer to ten turns if flags change colors in last few turns.

Other than that my men did manage to hold their line though it was a close call... in northern side my engineers did buy me enough time to hold that flag without question though Dave threw EVERYTHING into fight there - loads of empty schrecks for example playing bullet magnets. I counted 100+ dead/wounded in flag approximity.

In southern small flag (heavy big building) was still in my troopers hands even though there were lots of enemy inf around just next to the building. Here I counted something like 120+ dead/wounded.

Also to both map edges saw severe fighting as to both sides there were about 70 dead/wounded.

The fight ended as a minor victory for allied side 58-40
allies
201 men down
2 captured
6 vehicles KOed
220 men ok

axis
439 men down
3 vehicles KOed
221 men ok

Great fight Dave !!!

[KG_ThorsHammer]

My selections

1 x green volkssturm battalion
1 x green volkssturm company
2 x conscript 150mm rocket OB's
1 x veteren lynx
1 x crack KingTiger
1 x regular pzIVH
1 x regular stu42


As you can see, I really sacrificed armour and artillary to create a large infantry force.

my plan was to advance across the board, keeping the bulk of my men hidden; I did not want Aki to know just how many men I had purchased. I would use my rockets to cause some casualties to widen the infantry disparity even more. I would stop short of the town while advancing a little further on my flanks. After letting Aki cram troops into the town, I would bring forward the bulk of my troops and his men in the town would "have their head caught in the meat grinder" and be overwelmed by sheer numbers from 3 sides. As my men were green, I kept company commanders well back to rally panicked men, and I grouped most of my schrecks (there were LOTS) into Tank hunting teams to use volley fire.

The battle started and my lynx drove deep into the enemy rear; a move which I think surprised my opponent...unfortunately we were doing ip at the time and it discoed. We had to redo a turn and this time my lynx was brewed up:( . I waited for my rockets to land but because they were conscript it took a LONG time and they missed their chance to hit his men when they were more concentrated. Although inaccurate, a few lucky rocket hits can devestate advancing infantry. First contact was on my left, but enemy infantry with support from chaffees and mortar HT's pushed my men back, inflicting heavy casualties. AKi is right, I gained more respect for the Mortar HT's. They take a lot of care to use, but can be effective if used correctly. I tried to move my pz4 forward in the centre to fire at his tanks/HT's on my left, but long range fire killed the commander, and then through thick trees he lost the main gun..then death. On my right, I ambushed a greyhound but was then driven back by shermie 105's, mortar halftracks and infantry. I said to myself "enough is enough" and raced 3 platoons of infantry with my stu to my right and counter attacked. They decimated the enemy troops and restored the situation. My stu took out a turning shermie 76 but was taken out by a zook a moment later. I was almost able to sweep behind the town but his shermi105 blasted my men and they were forced to be content in restoring order on the right. I was indecisive with my king for quite a while. Not wanting to lose it, and also wanting to introduce it at the right sector, I changed my mind a number of times, wasting valuable combat time. I finally sent him to my left but as he arrived my opponent was transferring equipment to the centre. I decided against an advance as my remaining men there would not be able to support the king in the woods. Finally my opponent brought tanks to the front line to support his men in the town. I brought up my tank hunting groups and they brought down a number of chaffees. Many of his men were now in the town, and as I had seen quite a few vehicles, I knew I must have had a large infantry advantage. Unfortunately, as I was unable to attack the town from its flanks, I would have to launch a frontal assault only. I brought forward the rest of my men and my opponent was shocked to see how many men he was up against. His artillary and infantry were cutting my units up, but more would take their place. My company commanders had their hands full trying to rally panicked men, but the attack continued. The cry of " I need more ammuniton!" was heard in increasing frequency from the enemy line. A platoon of engineers launched a spoiling attack that fatally delayed a large group of my men close to the town. They were overrun but they had completed their sacrificial task. I moved my king towards the centre of the map and brought forward the rest of my schreck groups to give fire support and made one last push for the town. Unt. Thylin wiped the blood out of his eye from the cut on his forhead , looked at the centre of town but a stones throw away and thought to himself....

He knew there were enemy tanks there, even a shermie76, but the town needed to be secured, and he wasnt just in a panzer, he was in a kingTiger, the pride of Germany.

His face beamed with determination and he yelled an order to the driver..."MARSCH!!".

The beast shuddered and creaked as it began to move forward; grenades and bullets were shrugged off and it drove into the city.

Unfortunately the turret turned towards infantry and when he reached the area behind the enemy shermie 105, there was not enough time to swing it around, and no enemy tanks were downed in his heroic effort lol.,,oh well.

The battle results....soon:)

but here is a link to a few screen shots
http://members.tripod.com/hg_thorshammer/id21.htm

sigh,, a minor loss..my king was able to secure some of the town, but added no more kills as I had hoped. Still, It was an entertaining battle...and bloodier than any other game I've had, including 5,000 point ones!. Great game Aki, sound tactics from start to finish.

Minulla oli mukavaa

[Deathdealer]

Final picture from frontline with some casualty approximations...

Yellows are US - spots are destroyed vehicles and curves are approximated end lines

Light blue are axis - spots again destroyed vehicles and curved boxes are enemy concentrations - mostly whats left of them.

[Deathdealer]

Some pointers about inf usage in CMBO:

- withdraw command is great as there is no delay at all and most of time withdrawing men don't panic. Here I did several withdrawals and artillery strikes combined ie Dave took 4.2" shells heavily right after I had withdrawn my men away
- infantry doesn't tire very fast (in my mind) ie combining this to withdraw I could attack straight back with same troops in the next turn (happened in southern sector couple of times) without worrying tired troops
- MGs are not well modelled in CMBO ie they lack suppressive power and this is the reason why I dropped MMGs from my coys

Some pointers about armor usage in CMBO:

- area firing is great ie even if you don't have LOS to a unit you can still use HE slingers to suppress enemy inf. 105 Shermies and StuH42s are my favorites here
- almost all armor with 75mm gun or bigger can fire smoke and one really has to learn to use them to cut LOS to sides (guns/vehicles/zookies etc) while delivering other units the message to back away. Here I had usually 2-3 vehicles working together - some shot smokescreen while other(s) shot Daves inf to pieces
- when vehicles loose sight to identified target they turn turret front BUT if firing area they DON't turn turret. So one needs to be careful with movement if firing something - takes some practise to keep this working. CMBB introduces covered arcs which are great ie turret keeps certain directions even if moved

Some pointers about artillery in CMBO:

- artillery is very flexible in CMBO. I denied Daves movement mostly with fast hitting 4.2" mortar fire and they are my favorites (120mm FOs when playing axis) because usually into LOS they hit even less than 1 min (reg). In CMBO one can adjust target quite a lot and still delay will be less than 1 minute. I did use this ability many times in this fight - especially in northern sector where I adjusted FOs target almost every minute ie dropping 5 to 10 shells in last quarter of turn and then to next turn same again. With 80 shells these 4.2"ers really saved my butt here.
- rockets are cheap to their blast rating but their targeting is real pain - usually they hit with something like 400m radius to target while other artillery can hit in 50m radius to target (in LOS) and even without LOS in 100m radius. So my advice is NEVER buy rockets because if you are close to enemy and target them you can end up counting your own downed men...

Comments welcome !!!

Adding one big factor in CM fighting:

- in CMBO units can't target more than one unit which leads easily into situation where 3 squads can assault on MG. MG pins one squad which eventually breaks but other two can close unopposed to wreck havoc. In CMBB this is somewhat corrected ie units shift targets when confronting many - this helps mostly MGs which now can stall even large assaults on their own. In our game Dave had actually 5 Volksturm coys each with 3 plts and each with 4 squads totalling to 60 squads and 60 PzSchrecks against my 7 plts ie 21 squads. Horrendous odds to be frank but as his squads were green they did break quite easily - even with leaders backing up their morale. VS squads are only 7 men but they carry a lot of automatic weapons so their FPs are quite significant. Basically if he had succeeded attacking with all of them in the same turn my men would have been wiped out as with basic calculations my 21 squads would have engaged 20 to 30 squads while the rest would have closed in unopposed. CMBO engine makes firing unit stick to target ie even if target breaks and runs back it is being fired at for whole turn. As I mentioned this is somewhat corrected in CMBB ie most of times defending squads change target when last one is neutralized but still there is something to hope for in infantry simulation. I trust BFC will keep us working on our tactics though in years to come...

[KG_ThorsHammer]

PS:

my biggest regret in the game is my use of my king. I was indecisive with him and too cautious. I had intended to keep him back and engage at a distance, but Aki used shoot and scout tactics with his tanks in the woods and avoided contact with him almost altogether. I was tempted to advance him up the centre and sit in front of the town to engage enemy tanks, but I decided against it as I was afraid numerous tanks would engage him and he would lose a main gun or be immobed. In retrospect I should have, as he could have blasted the town and allowed a large number of my troops to assault. Although I was going for a massive infantry advantage, If I could go back I would replace the extra volkssturm company I grabbed with a few more vehicles. This would have allowed me a greater ability to protect my infantry from long range fire. Aki mentions how outnumbered he was and how if I had been able to attack with all my troops at once, it would have been over. His 120mm mortar observers really saved his butt..green troops panic easily under artillary fire and I consistently had large chunks of troops out of action and so I was never able to launch a full scale attack.