DAR: The Battle of Surma (CMRT - The Brigade Battle Campaign)

K

Kraut

Guest
The German 1st company of the 3rd infantry Battalion is defending the strategic important town Surma (campaign victory hex field)
against the 1st company of the Soviet 7th tank battalion and the 2nd company of the Soviet 8th tank battalion. The Soviets forces in this battle are commanded by our fellow member Vatutin85.

This battle will be fought in @Concord 's fantastic campaign "The Brigade Battle Campaign".

Here a small part of the the current situation in my front section. The whole current map can not be posted,
because I do not want to accidental spoiler the Soviets players about the positions of our troops (campaign has fog of war)
and also I want to avoid that the Axis Commander @Panzerknacker will bring me before the martial court.
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Because the situation is total hopeless I requested the permission to retreat after a short fight (this is possible in this campaign),
but the Axis Commander denied my request with these encouraging words: "Try to hold Kraut, as i said your men will be sacrified."
 
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This campaign has some interesting rules, which will be important for the strategic decisions.
Every company has started with 100% strength. After each battle the casualties inflicted to each company are subtracted and the strength for the next battle is reduced.
For example if one company would deploy 100 men and lose 30, the company has in the next battle only 70% strength (and can use 70% of the normal points available)
This will be important for this battle, because I will try to inflict as much damage as possible to the Soviets tanks companies to weaken them. This makes the battle very interesting and also allows imbalanced battle to be strategic important and interesting to play. I also think that imbalanced battle can provide great joy to play, if there is an interesting campaign setting surrounding it. The campaign itself as a whole looks balanced.

I selected my on map troops.
A very short summary is that my German infantry company can spent 1000 points on a Grenadier (44) company and some specialist teams, but no spending on units with rarity is allowed.
Each of the two enemy Soviet tanks companies can spent 1500 points from Soviet medium tank battalion and also 1000 points from Rifle Battalion 44 Motorized. But all only with zero rarity.
That means that the Soviets can spent combined 3000 points on tanks and 2000 points on motorized infantry. The rules are way more complex and can be found, if someone is interested to know, in detail here

My setup chosen can be found below. My company is considered according to the campaign rules as entrenched and therefore I could buy 30 foxholes for free.
Also there is a rule that the "Campaign master" @Concord can give a few extra forces for free. In my case this has been the MarderIIIM, a sniper and a Panzerschreck team.
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A battle map overview
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Kompanie
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1. Zug (reinforced with a PaK40)
1zug.png
2. Zug (reinforced); only regular experience is allowed and also a maximum of +1 morale and/or leadership.
2.zug.png
3. Zug (reinforced with one PaK40)
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Schweres Maschinengewehr MG 42
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The forward observer can call the battalions mortar (2x81mm medium mortar), because my company is in contact with its battalion (on the hex field map).
 
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Awesome DAR @Kraut.

I enjoyed CMx1 and CMx2, but the maximum enjoyment I have had in both was playing in various player-made campaigns against human opponents.
For me, the 2 layers of tactical and strategic was the ultimate military simulation. Each battle has so much more importance when it is framed within a larger picture.

In this campaign, there are 30 companies (!!!) facing off against each other...a whole brigade vs. brigade. The Brigade Battles.

Game on! :2draw:

Opel Blitz.jpg
 
The map size is 1600x1600m and I have only one infantry company (+) to cover it, which is impossible and therefore I will concentrate my defense only around the mainstreets within the city Surma.
All troops will later on retreat into the city. I will prioritize the defense in the buildings which are able to avoid long or medium range tank fire due to obstacles. Therefore there will be some redeploying after the Soviet tanks are threatening the outside buildings.
setup1.png
PaK40 from the 1. Zug awaiting the enemy tanks. The morale is high and they are still optimistic. 01.png

This Pak40 (3. Zug) covers the road where the T34 tanks approach is expected. The forward observer will call a mortar fire mission to harass the approaching infantry.03.png
 
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Turn 4, no shoots fired
Enemy scouts are approaching on the whole frontline to recon my defense positions. I hope they will not detect my PaK's.

Here a picture of a Soviet scout team crossing the street as fast as possible.
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No shots fired and the Soviets disappeared in the field.

Also the first enemy tank has been spotted. A Soviet T34-85 (early) - in the background Soviet mounted motorized infantry
t.png

Map overview at turn 4:
t4.png

My plan for the next few turns is to ambush the scouts and then to retreat the outposts.
 
Turn 6
The enemy infantry is advancing and my outpost have the order to retreat. Also the forward observers had been able to start a harassing fire mission at the enemy advance to try to slow them down. The fire rate is low with the goal to save ammunition.
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Close call - a 81mm mortar round explodes very close.
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The outpost are retreating.
r1.png
moving into new prepared positions, behind a house and a barn and setting a trap
r2.png
CMRT looks so beautiful. I use amongst other mods Kiemes and Tank a Lot's building mods and also Aris's terrain mod
 
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Turn 9

Soviet two men scout team is successfully ambushed:1.png

After neutralizing the scouts my recon team has become the order to retreat into the next prepared ambush position.
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Map overview
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Emergency mortar fire mission has been called and will arrive in about 7 minutes. This is the area where I assume the enemy infantry will assault. No time to wait for spotting rounds as this area will be probably overrun soon and the line of sight is bad. Also the Soviet mortars are shelling this area which could be an indicator for upcoming assault.
3.png

As this battle is played in the CMRT "Brigade Battle Campaign" every casualty will also reduce the strength of their company in the next battles (and the whole time of the campaign).
This rule makes it in my opinion very interesting and I never had played a multiplayer campaign with that feature (rule) before.
 
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Kraut said:
As this battle is played in the CMRT "Brigade Battle Campaign" every casualty will also reduce the strength of their company in the next battles (and the whole time of the campaign).
This rule makes it in my opinion very interesting and I never had played a multiplayer campaign with that feature (rule) before.
Click to expand...

Great DAR! Seems that such rules will make tactical battles more interesting to play out, even when the outcome is sort of known before hand. Risk valuable assets to deal out some damage vs trying to keep them alive for another battle.
Sounds good! Keep it up (y)
 
Turn 12

The Pak40 from the 1. Zug opens fire at Soviet T-34 and hits two times.
1.png

Feindpanzer is destroyed!
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This has been very lucky and I assume that the Soviets did not know about this PaK before.

m.png
The PaK40 from the 3. Zug has been constantly firing at the approaching enemy infantry and is still intact, but they are doomed to cover the retreat from the 3. Zug.
There are several T-34 which are firing at the 3. Zug. Therefore they are ordered to retreat into new defense positions away from the tanks.
 
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Turn 15 map overview: My Emergency fire mission missed mainly and the Soviets began to heavily shell my positions with mortars.
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If my Infantry Company (1CO/1BN) will have more than 50% casualties, then the company is considered destroyed and will be taken from the hexfield map according to the campaign rules. If the company has more than 50% casualties, but still more then 20% survivors left, the other two companies from the same battalion will get each 10% extra manpower. The campaign rules are allowing a retreat (to retreat I would need to move all retreating next to the southern map border), but due to strategic decisions I did not get any permission to retreat. My task is to weaken the enemy tanks companies so that our counterattack will face less resistance recapturing the city Surma.

Dust and explosions everywhere:
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The PaK40 (3. Zug) is under heavy fire from mortar and Soviet infantry for several turns, suppressed but still able to fight thanks to the foxholes
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Ambushed from behind the corner. A group from the 3. Zug successfully ambushed Soviet infantry. Now they are surrounded and can not retreat.
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Typical Marder IIIM ambush position: unfortunately both shoots at 800m misses a T-34.
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After the Soviet main attack has begun the situation got very fast very bad.

The Marder IIIM lost the duel versus the T-34 after the Marder missed four times. The accuracy of the Marder IIIM with it's modified mounted PaK40 maingun is normally very good. I did a test and also published it in the "Weapons test" thread.
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The last surviving personal from the PaK40 (3. Zug surrendered) after receiving several minutes heaviest fire.
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The last survivor from the 1. Zug Pak40 is running with a pistol in his hand.
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Soviet infantry is entering the town Surma
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The morale has decreased rapidly. Here a half Squad is surrendering. On the other side of the street there are plenty Soviet infantry soldiers occupying the buildings.
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Map overview:
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The situation is totally hopeless. I had to give @Panzerknacker an early warning that the town Surma (hexfield L6) and the 1st Company from the 1st Inf Battalion will be lost soon.
 
You're putting up a good fight against twice your numbers. And 2 armoured companies vs. your single infantry company. A tough challenge.
How many times would this kind of situation have played out in the final years of the war eh?

That Marder crew had some bad luck with their shooting (the randomness of CM sure keeps things exciting though!).
Not much armour on the Marder. Not a cherry-picker's choice, which is why it is only issued as a GM extra in the campaign.

Has the regular-experience-only factor been noticeable to you?

Since your C.O. orders are to keep fighting, take down as many of the enemy with you as you can, to the very end. It all counts in the campaign.

Great battle and reporting! :giggle:
 
@Concord , I do like this battle setting and I think this campaign provides good reason to also play battle which are not balanced. I think we are missing something the game also provides if we only try to play balanced battles.

I think maybe it would have been better to concentrate the three platoons nearer to each other to have at least some area with high fire power.
Also maybe I should have withdrawn the Marder IIIM after the first missed shots and set up a new ambush. Due no nearly no armor the Marder is in my experience best for medium and long range ambushes and then repositioning.

I did play against Vatutin85 before and I remembered that he is a strong player.

edit: changed name (mixed upped)
 
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I'm not sure any battle is perfectly balanced @Kraut, I guess you're referring to the rules by which I play my ladder games? If so, those I put in place to ensure my opponents won't 'game the system' as it were, in a perfect world people would make realistic and challenging selections in ladder games, sadly, a couple of times I've found that not to be the case and that some individuals will cherry pick the most overpowered units possible with quality set to 11 in order to secure the win at the cost of an enjoyable and challenging game.

I am enjoying this campaign so far though, because what we do in battle matters in the big picture context. It makes one think more carefully about what moves to make, inspires creative ways of going about things when we are limited to lesser materiel than the enemy.

I'm by no means against unbalanced battles, I am against battles where you literally have no chance to win.
 
@Stafford, please excuse Sir, I always mix up you and @Concord. Maybe it is because your are both Australian. I did not mean in any way your preferred house rules and I also play always with house rules and try to play balanced battle, but I think maybe I am missing something because of that. I think to play sometimes different set upped battles improves my game experience and a campaign is a good opportunity to try something new.
Combat Mission has so many depth that I probably will play it for many years and there are so much ways to play it. The campaigns or 3vs3 multiplayer battles for example, but each battle can also in many ways customized with house rules and battle setups so that for every taste there is something.
 
You confused me with @Concord ?? I'm so insulted....! :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: JK mate...

All good, I think you're right though - playing games like this one where you are in a bad situation you learn a lot about how to do things differently in future, RNG did not smile on you with that Marder, and you needed some luck, but that's just the game I guess!
 
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