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Looks like player numbers will be pretty close, but if there's any units left over after everyone's signed in, I'll take one on. Can I get into the allied discord as well?
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Aug 12, 2018 22:10
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 21:37 |
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There's over 20 potential players if everyone comes over from the main thread including 1/2 of the fence sitters, so I'll wait a while to see. I'd certainly be happy to command stragglers or armored cars though!
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Aug 12, 2018 22:39
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This is how placement looks at the moment: Battalion Commander: Gnoman XO: Bacarruda ??? Mortar platoon A Company: Gradenko_2000 (HQ) Stairmaster (A2) chitoryu12 (A3) Remora ? (A4) B Company: Glynnenstein (HQ) Hubis (B2) Comrade Koba (B3) TehKeen (B4) Straggler Company(+) or maybe (-)/Battalion(-) I dunno man, we all just ran away from the tanks HQ: Maybe Top Hats Monthly? Str 1: Jaguars! Str 2: Fray (Provisionally allocated) Str 3: Pirate Radar (Provisionally allocated) Str 4: Str 5 (Mortar): Armored: HQ (2x76mm) Acebuckeye13 bunnyofdoom (2x M18) Comstar (Provisionally allocated) (2x M36) Habeusdorkus (2x M18) ??? M8 Pool: Dance Officer (Advisor) Fray (Infantry platoon - likely straggler unit) So just at the moment looks like we'll need 1-3 infantry commanders, depending on whether we have people commanding the mortar units, which is generally a pretty boring job unless we're going to start direct firing them. We also need someone to drive the armoured cars. Jaguars! fucked around with this message at 10:25 on Aug 13, 2018 |
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Aug 13, 2018 10:19
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No worries, I left that in by accident.Acebuckeye13 posted:Radical. New guys, signup sheet is here. We need a straggler platoon, someone to drive some armored cars, and a few people to order around mortars. I've filled out our recent signups, Brakeless has straggler 4 and BoxOfAids has the Armoured cars. That leaves two platoons of mortars. Does straggler five really have all those jeeps and are they armed?
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Aug 13, 2018 21:20
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Might as well get another player in for that then, I'll post in the main thread.
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Aug 13, 2018 21:28
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Mantis42 posted:I'm taking it, assuming this is what you meant by an "oddjob" command. Yep, that's the one, I didn't want to give too much away in the main thread or give anyone the impression they'd get a battletank or something  If you want to swap for my straggler infantry platoon, I'd be happy to do that too.Remora posted:Nonsense, you're commanding TDs, that is clearly a harebrained infantryman with one of those bazookas the thread seems so keen on. Or maybe not -  This was early war tank destroyer doctrine. I believe it went out the window pretty fast after the North African campaign.
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Aug 14, 2018 03:29
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Top Hats Monthly posted:
Is this one of your company level HMGs or the one lousy BAR that my team saw fit to bring along? 50 rifles and one LMG, it's like WWI never happened!And a couple of general questions, how large is the map and how long is the scenario? Jaguars! fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Aug 15, 2018 |
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Aug 15, 2018 21:27
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Cheers!
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Aug 15, 2018 21:39
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 Start with 1 squad a couple of meters from the edge of the map and deploy the rest like so:  MOVE north. 
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Aug 16, 2018 06:29
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habeasdorkus posted:We need to start a deadpool. I'm saying one of the M18s, from a lucky shot at a range of about 1km. Well I'm an optimist, so Tiger II, soft kill (I.e. crew bails out), by M18, Range 1200m
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Aug 20, 2018 01:10
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A little advice for the infantry commanders - don't panic just because you've seen the enemy. There's a strong impulse to up the speed but that means that by the time you reach the buildings, QUICK, FAST, SLOW and sometimes even HUNT movement aren't available until your troops get their breath back - this takes a lot of game turns. By all means send a squad ahead to defend your objective, but make sure at least some troops get there fresh and able to manoeuvre even if your front troops are in contact. If you have troops in the zergling ball, I suggest adding a lateral component to your advance to help spread things out.
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Aug 20, 2018 07:40
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Intel report: Armor: Early on we saw two Tiger IIs, one near the front of the column and one near the back. One panther with the main column and of course the Brummbar, which is a kind of armoured assault mortar that can probably level a building in one go. Less obvious was the units on the Yosemite Pike: A medium tank with tank riders and some kind of SPG. They're visible at about 1:58'33". Since Medium tanks often come as a unit, there may be another one or they may just have a pair of Panthers. The SPG is likely a loner. At this stage the head of both columns will have reached roughly the corners of the roads. Infantry: Not much to panic about, we've seen 14 Halftracks total so figure about a reinforced company of mechanized troops so far. Whether there are more remains to be seen but they aren't likely to have more than us because their infantry has smaller squads, had to buy all the halftracks and German Infantry in general is more expensive than US AFAIK.
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Aug 20, 2018 13:40
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Hubis posted:I might be off-base here, but I think we should be a bit careful about meta-gaming based on what we have seen and assuming equal starting values You're right of course, it is very possible they get more points, but I'm pretty sure that they won't have a full battalion of mechanized infantry and a bunch of big cat tanks. My current worst case would be two full companies with strong support arms but I will reassess that if the map starts to flood with infantry. Anyway, by far the most important thing at the moment is that I want the armored company to be aware of the vehicles appearing on the north road and incorporate that into their plans. Jaguars! fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Aug 20, 2018 |
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Aug 20, 2018 21:14
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Pirate Radar posted:In this situation, is it possible it’s better for the stragglers to stay at MOVE speed so that Able company can move up first and we get untangled and spread out a little more? Potentially, yeah. If there's space for you to move into, you could QUICK forward and to the left for 50m and that should separate you from the rest of the gang quite fast. Some other options are to stand still for a bit as they clear or even just up the speed and run to the buildings, just be aware of the fatigue tradeoff that involves. There's more than one way to skin a cat!
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Aug 20, 2018 21:31
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Waiting on orders from: Chitoryu12 Pirate Radar Fray Mantis42 Orders sheet
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Aug 21, 2018 21:26
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Updated!
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Aug 21, 2018 23:06
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Intel, T4: A: Scratch one SPG! Also of note is the halftrack manoeuvring carrying 2 smaller teams. Moving as if it is leaving the road northbound. Are they heading for the north end of the highway or the forest? Or just finding a nice quiet place to set up mortars? B: 1 Halftrack visible, heading for town fast. Also carrying two small teams. C: Panther carrying two infantry squads, slightly off road for some reason. D: 'Heavy' noise contacts. Probably the king tiger from the front of the column. Expect this contact to move into the highway within the next five minutes! E: Panther just visible moving onto the road F,G,H: 'Light' noise contacts. Looks like a platoon of halftracks that they rushed ahead to secure the objective. The other H on the right (Oops): We don't have visibility once they come down off the hill but the rest of the stuff we saw Turn 2 will be down in this area. I: Old faithful. King tiger just sitting in the open as if fighterbombers aren't even a thing. So far I'm assessing their infantry as two companies - one that is rushing Noville and the doing flank manoeuvring and so on. I don't see sign of a third company but I'm keeping an eye out to that possibility. They'll likely have heavy weapons platoons as well with MGs and Mortars, possibly towed guns of some kind. Jaguars! fucked around with this message at 08:23 on Aug 23, 2018 |
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Aug 23, 2018 08:15
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Squad #2  Alternate 50m QUICK with 50m MOVE like so. End of orders. Intel No intel report this turn, but I'd like to note for our inexperienced players: This is their Panther a few seconds before it was shot, the tank riders jump down as the tank goes into action:  Then we lose sight of half the troops as one of the squads is hidden from us and two shells explode by the panther. We see one casualty cross, but I'll bet you  that at least 3 other soldiers went down without us seeing it. This is typical of combat mission games, since spotting is so hard you are often doing a lot better than you think as you are killing concealed enemy!
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Aug 24, 2018 22:13
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Straggler 1 No change in orders
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Aug 27, 2018 22:03
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Can someone with the game give me a view of my ops area? Something like this:  trees on, altitude of about 30m should work.
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Aug 28, 2018 06:20
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HQ Settle down behind this hedge for the moment  Other Take this squad on the right:  MOVE to the hedge, then QUICK to the house. Half the squad upstairs, half downstairs. Best picture of the house i could find:  No change to other units. Jaguars! fucked around with this message at 09:12 on Aug 29, 2018 |
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Aug 29, 2018 09:08
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Tank intel: So we've lost a lot of tanks. Well, that's what happens when you lead with them. There are quite a few nasties about : A: Probably the panther that almost advanced into the road and then backed off. I plotted it wrong on the last intel summary so apologies for that. B: Reasonably sure this is the one that had the duel in the field. C:This might possibly be the one at location D, but it's just as likely to be a separate one at this point. D: The one the killed the TDs on the road. Haven't seen it for a while so it could have moved or it might just be locking down the road. E: We saw the Brummbar assault mortar go into this area a while back. We also only know the location of one King tiger at the moment, the other could be here or somewhere back further in a location we don't have sight on. F: We saw this tank moving and have quite a good idea where they moved up. Current intel estimate: 4 Panthers (worst case 5 or six but there's not really any evidence to support this) 2 King tigers 1 Assault gun.
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Aug 31, 2018 23:47
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Ok, I screwed up and saved over my working plot, but here's what we've seen in the last few turns regarding infantry: A: All these guys running around death valley and getting shot up. My estimate is that a platoon has been told to secure the forest in the west. B: Squad of infantry seen at the end of last turn. C: This is the two most likely buildings that the guys shooting up the jeep were occupying. D: Squad seen in this area near where the panther started this turn. E: Sign detected during the highway tank duel. Size unknown. Arrow is my guess on the logical direction for them to advance. F: Main route into town, we've seen a fairly constant stream of vehicles coming in. My guess is that we're seeing three lead platoons - one around location A, one operating in the northern outskirts of Noville and one in the south center of Noville. There might be more further back, hard to tell.
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Sep 1, 2018 01:14
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There's been a bit of discussion on discord around what are good platoon orders. Let's start with IMO a particularly good set of company orders: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?action=showpost&postid=487499144 This is a good balance between vague and micromanaging. This is what the company commander should do, place his platoons and make sure they fit in with what the other companies plan. Brief and clear. He's also gone to some trouble trying to point out the freedoms you have in deploying. So what makes a good platoon orders? depends on what you're doing. For the walk in, this: quote:MOVE towards the houses in Vicksburg and assume positions as depicted: Now that an attack is imminent, you need to to get into more detail. The coy commander has placed the platoon, now you are placing your squads. This is when things start to get too detailed to go straight off a map, because you'll miss little details that mess up your plan. This building doesn't have a windows facing north. This one can't see anything to the North because of an inconvenient tree. This one works well because one face of it faces across the fields but other buildings shield it from the sides. As an example, my unit isn't very important in the scheme of things so I've only issued a few basic orders. But in the last turn or two, I thought I might be able to get shots on some fools running in the open. I decided to choose a fire position for a squad, so I went back to the map reveal video and tried to get a look at the area: Looking around the area, I realized that my first choice (the building on the end of the row with the widest view) would be seen by an area with a ominous signs of a strong German force. Lo and behold two panthers and lots of infantry appeared last turn. I don't want to face all that with a single squad. The one story building has a hedge in front of it. I want them in the right hand side of the building because the left is made of wood and bullets will go straight through. So it's not the perfect fire position, but its a safe one that increases my platoon's awareness of the area and provides a good base where they can move in any direction behind terrain. I won't have multiple enemy positions firing on me. Keep it simple. Start by finding the best areas for your squads to be in. Then once those areas are secure, send out fireteams to increase the area you have eyes on. Keeping squads together is also an option, ten guys in a strong building will absolutely obliterate infantry coming at them across the open. Watch out for that assault mortar though! E: To clarify, giving orders on a map is fine. Strive to give orders in whatever format is clearest. But use every aid you have when it comes to planning orders Jaguars! fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Sep 2, 2018 |
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Sep 2, 2018 00:44
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These guys MOVE  Destinations: 
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Sep 4, 2018 12:10
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Intel: The Germans went firm this turn. They secured their first objectives and now they're bringing up the rear elements and working out what to do next. A: Panthers B: More Panthers C: I'm hopeful that our barrage caught a couple of squads here, but who knows? D: Tiger Royale heading into town for the day E: 'Heavy' type contact up here. Possibly the wrecked SPGs? The only other possibility is the other King Tiger. F: Halftracks loaded with troops. If it looks like they are there to stay we could try mortar them but we probably need that ammo elsewhere. The Enemy The german unit is a tank group with some highly mobile supporting infantry. Their troops will be well trained and effective and their commanders morale will be high. So far German tactics have been very conventional, you might even say unimaginative. They rushed covering parties to various points while everyone else chugged directly into Noville and jumped into buildings that defended the town against an assault. Then they leapfrogged their panthers forward to stop anyone crossing the gap between the two towns. Enemy strengths are obvious. compared to us they have a small elite force. If we get into a stand up fight, their tanks will beat us to a pulp. The enemy's biggest weakness is the size of their force. They only have enough infantry to focus an attack in a small area and nothing supporting out in the flanks. If we can knock out enough of this infantry, then they are forced to push their tanks into an urban area where their range is nullified. Conclusions: So what are they going to do? Pretty simple really, they have to attack, and they are set up pretty well for a frontal assault on Cobru. They can simply have the tanks sit where they are, call down a barrage and have the infantry move in under tank cover. If I get time I'll look at the actual assault routes they can use. There will be a short time before their artillery hits, depending on if they have already called it in or not. German towed Arty takes about ten minutes to fire for effect. Recommendations: First, limit exposure to tank fire from outside our village. Find out what a keyhole position is and try to ID some. Have troops in reserve deep inside the village. Position MGs in well protected places where they can't be flanked. Position your bazookas where the engagement range is close. Position the rifle squads to block enemy infantry trying to get your special squads. Have some teams positioned in the outer layer where they can see outwards, but have escape routes planned for when they wheel in a tank or overwhelming fire. When the enemy fights their way to house, greet them on the other side with a hail of fire. Tanks? You can try and find flank shots on their current positions, but I doubt it's going to happen. I'd rather see you as ambush predators. Finding a position to fire on them when they move forward should be somewhat more practical. Meeting a tank as one rounds a street corner is a pretty difficult situation. Be patient. Get cunning, find satisfaction in making the enemy pay for every step forward. Be scrappy, some of our units are going to get mauled, but don't give up, keep trying to stymie the enemy just as they think they have succeeded. let's see just how well we can do.
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Sep 4, 2018 13:40
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Well, it's not easy. IMO the woods south of Noville need to be denied to the Germans which is what Glynn's company is doing, and it's the best way to get troops to Noville proper. Moving infantry Cobru -> Noville is would be a slaughter and unlikely to achieve anything. I did underestimate the distance between the two towns a bit though, so we might be able to infiltrate forwards a little bit.
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Sep 5, 2018 01:21
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One advantage we have is that the pressure is on the Germans. They took a town, but they will be aware that if they don't take a big chunk out of our fighting force then we'll actually be stronger in the next game. So what we want to do is lure the germans into bad positions in their search for us. If they can't see anything in their present places, then they have to move forward and that's when we can give them a bloody nose. If the germans remain passive, then probing toward Noville helps force the issue and forces them to redeploy. Tank wise, we should be fighing a delaying action - Lay an ambush, shoot once, scoot back to a new position, lay an ambush... this is how you multiply the effectiveness of one tank. Harriet is in a position that looks ok on them map, but what is the field of fire like? Where are you going to go after the ambush is sprung?
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Sep 5, 2018 21:50
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Yeah, there's bound to be a few options. You could be annoying and pop in and out from behind the forest, or there might be the opportunity to go around it. Any effort that the germans put that way is effort they aren't putting in their main attack so I'm hoping to get a scout team or two up there in ten minutes or so to provide spotting and diversion.
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Sep 6, 2018 03:40
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Intel T17 A: Both panthers moved forward one after the other. One bright side to this is that they no longer have buildings or hedges hiding their sides. B: Again, both panthers moved forward a little. The Brummbar is located at the right hand X. C: Dammit, another one? How many of the drat things have they got? It's located well too. This is it's view toward the woods:  I didn't realize that the woods were on a forward slope like that. That makes it a little harder to get into Noville, althugh we should still make sure we own the part of the woods back from the crest. There is also infantry in the building next to it:  Who can see this infantry? D: Halftrack presumably moving backup to shore up the flanks. E: Tiger probably heading for the south bit of town F: Stationary halftracks. Jaguars! fucked around with this message at 11:14 on Sep 6, 2018 |
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Sep 6, 2018 11:12
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Probably a good chance to lay some fire on them then while there aren't any tanks in view.
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Sep 6, 2018 11:23
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I cant point out much, but here's a closer view of the town We hit the germans crossing the field pretty hard, I think. There were two groups visible and both got hit by the sherman quite a bit. One retreated a bit which indicates we killed enough of them to cause a panic. I do plan to push some scouts forward of the Hellcat but it's going to take a while to get there. Jaguars! fucked around with this message at 12:26 on Sep 6, 2018 |
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Sep 6, 2018 12:24
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Pirate Radar posted:gently caress me they need LOS? That’s going to be a pain to keep track of. What’s the LOS radius for friendly units? It'll help stop them panicking if they take casualties. With an OK leader and command connections, they'll probably take 3 or 4 before they start cowering or retreat, without it's more like one or two, especially if the squad leader dies. Might be a few more because they're high quality troops. You're never going to get everyone in an urban setting, so make sure the ones most likely to be in the thick of it are in command
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Sep 6, 2018 21:09
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Orders - Straggler 1 HQ MOVE to the location of the squad by the hedge Infantry in building Split squad. B team MOVE around the north side of the row houses and hop into the upper storey of the middle house.
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Sep 7, 2018 04:59
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Hey Bacc, If I've got this right, my HQ is able to call fire on one of these Halftracks: I could call in a point mission, Heavy, Short and dump about 10 rounds on them in the space of a minute or two, which ought to kill troops and might damage or destroy the track. They haven't moved for some time, so my theory is that they're mortars or similar and they aren't aware that they're under observation. I'll cancel the mission if they move but I understand we've got tons of off-map mortar ammo so it's not a huge loss if it's wasted.
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Sep 9, 2018 06:41
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I'd be very careful about running the whole platoon into that front woods. It's hostile territory and you want move slower or even stop, spread out a bit and put a scout team out in front. Just my $0.02
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Sep 10, 2018 08:17
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Orders - Straggler 1 Front squad split off the scout team. MOVE to the other forest. Remainder of team push into the middle of the little forest. Back squad MOVE into the middle of little forest.
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Sep 11, 2018 11:47
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If we retreat without a fight then the Germans will replace their minimal casualties and add the things they sacrificed to buy all their big cats. We'll probably get a bunch of sherman 75s and stragglers that barely increase our strength. The terrain is a complete roll of the dice and might be better or might be considerably worse. Why are you just assuming that the situation will get better?
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Sep 12, 2018 11:40
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I'm out to the gallery. Might come back for a later battle. Apologies for being salty last night
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Sep 12, 2018 22:13
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 21:37 |
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Some parting advice to let me get the salt out for good Low level commanders - I'd a million times rather have subordinates with awkward questions or harebrained schemes than passive ones. Take an interest, find an edge no matter how small. Make your own game. Don't lead with your tanks Don't lead with your tanks Don't leeeeeeaaad with your taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks
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Sep 13, 2018 00:32
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