That would be me. 7 halftracks bunched together behind the right hill to hide from the tanks till the infantry came. Did not turn out that way.Defensive play was much better, I saw some interesting things and some good placement of units. Some of you really managed to get alot of success out of the AT guns and some were wickedly placed.
I did see one or two players make the mistake as to having units too close together and the enemy plane did a Number on them when dropping its bomb on target.
I dont recall who, but someone lost 4-6 halftracks with one bomb attack.
Oh man yes for sure. Especially in a @SlySniper scenario - you have it use it.First, the option to use Arty on turn one should have been used.
Exactly. I chose to go right, more below, I had the artillery coming down as a linear mission across the centre and a little left. I placed it slightly behind the main hill figuring that way the explosions would be on the US side of the hill - you know where his guys would be Then I had the CAS focusing on the right trenches since that was where I was going to attack.You are attacking multible terrain feature in open ground and within line of sight of the known enemy location.
There is two hills from where the enemy can view you.
That arty should have been falling on Turn one on one of those hills.
Hell yes. Some of them even guessed right about where the enemy was. As soon as the lead started coming back my way I adjusted area fire as I could to concentrate where the enemy was.Some of your armor should likely have been area firing on the other at some likely locations.
Oh that's not good. If you let the AT gun crews have free reign they can take out multiple tanks in a minute.Out of the Eleven battles, many didnt do it.
Agreed and that's why I went right. My assessment of the terrain was that going straight would mean taking fire from the left and the right as well as the centre. Once on the right really the only enemy you have to actively worry about is on the right and perhaps the hills but that's what area fire is for. So I set about having every tank with smoke putting down smoke on my right and some the centre so I could move left in relative peace. I only moved half the force at first - the rest was either laying smoke or shooting the shit out of anything that might be the enemy. Moving was challenging for sure and the low walls were an issue - even breaching them didn't always allow for smooth traversal from HTs.The Terrain. and the approach.
Dessert fighting is a little different in that cover is found in the slopes and grade of the land, not the trees and objects normally seen in other terrain.
There was only three options, go left, go right or up the middle. Well a forth was created. Some players never really pushed forward at all.
This I don't understand or agree with. Yes, shifting costs time but on the right there are dead zones where no US forces can hit and if you shape things right you can choose where and when your forces are face off against the enemy. I think I only lost one HT that was fully loaded - I got a little aggressive and paid for it.Going right flank was the choice most of you made and in general found out that was a terrible choice.
It was time comsuming to shift to the right and it was higher ground and in general exposed you to alot of fire from the left flank, let alone more fire from the right flank .
Thus once again exposing you to a large portion of the enemy forces which you did not have the numbers to deal with.
I am curious what the other successful attack looked like.We had only two truly successful attacks in the game, they had their own method of doing it.
Yep. That big crater was not just from hitting the 105SP gunsThe Germans had air power?
Yep. That big crater was not just from hitting the 105SP guns
5 of my guns killed 12 tanks. A 6th gun probably got one or two more, but I supposed all the soldiers were buddy-aided away, but I can’t find their bodies anywhere.I’m intrigued to know how well each of the US players’ did with their ATG’s? Mine KO’d nine tanks between them before the last one died in the tenth minute. I thought at the time they had done well, but clearly not as I had one of the worst US results
There was one defender I can think of, that his defence likey would have punished you as well as it did the player he faced. It was well designed to crush any German right flank attack.
I am just pointing out that the low pocket area straight ahead would also limit the amount of enemy units that could spot you, was much easier and faster to get to,
I'm at work so no screens. I'll try to put something more together this weekend but for now I'll use Sly's post to guide some comments...
Oh man yes for sure. Especially in a @SlySniper scenario - you have it use it.
Exactly. I chose to go right, more below, I had the artillery coming down as a linear mission across the centre and a little left. I placed it slightly behind the main hill figuring that way the explosions would be on the US side of the hill - you know where his guys would be Then I had the CAS focusing on the right trenches since that was where I was going to attack.
Hell yes. Some of them even guessed right about where the enemy was. As soon as the lead started coming back my way I adjusted area fire as I could to concentrate where the enemy was.
Oh that's not good. If you let the AT gun crews have free reign they can take out multiple tanks in a minute.
Agreed and that's why I went right. My assessment of the terrain was that going straight would mean taking fire from the left and the right as well as the centre. Once on the right really the only enemy you have to actively worry about is on the right and perhaps the hills but that's what area fire is for. So I set about having every tank with smoke putting down smoke on my right and some the centre so I could move left in relative peace. I only moved half the force at first - the rest was either laying smoke or shooting the shit out of anything that might be the enemy. Moving was challenging for sure and the low walls were an issue - even breaching them didn't always allow for smooth traversal from HTs.
I am surprised to hear you say the right was a bad choice. Terrain speaking it was the only one. Once my force was on the plain to the right I had zero worries about any enemy in the centre or left. Only the hills were a concern but I kept up the area fire as needed to keep that quiet. Then I was able to focus on just the one sector and keep my tanks eyes front against them. The plan was to break the forces on the right and then roll up the rest of the line. The plan was working except for time and those GD reinforcements - my guys were getting tired and what I really need was to let them rest a bit before continuing the assault. The US armour ground things to nearly a halt. My tank gunners sucked. They should have been able to pop those Stuarts but they kept missing. Grrrr. Thankfully their 37mm guns were not doing a lot to my armour - other than wrecking sub systems and breaking weapons. Honestly I though I was toast in the last few minutes. I managed to scrape together some guys in OK shape to start rolling up the trenches as best I could. Thankfully I could bring a lot of MG42s from HTs to bear and my guys made good progress mopping up. The clock just did not cooperate. Honestly I was surprised to hear I had done the best as the Germans because I didn't feel things went that well.
I had to pay attention to traffic management and widen the lanes - fortunately I had a few tanks which lost their main gun that could help Moving to the right chewed up the clock and I did have to be a traffic cop every minute. Thankfully I'm pretty good a traffic management after playing so much. Once my forces where on the right in the back they were basically un-target-able by the enemy so I could then choose who and when I exposed to the defenders.
Just to be clear for everyone- when you are speaking of German attack and say "Right Flank", you are referring to the American left flank, German right...correct?Canadian Cat, if it worked, then of course your decision was correct. (for your battle anyway.)
Keep in mind, the defender had choices also.
There was one defender I can think of, that his defence likey would have punished you as well as it did the player he faced. It was well designed to crush any German right flank attack.
So there is always the variables that made it interesting.
Most Germans that swung right, did not go far enough to the right to prevent fire from the left flank from seeing them.
But I agree, yes going far enough to the right can limit the amount of the defencive forces that could engage you.
I am just pointing out that the low pocket area straight ahead would also limit the amount of enemy units that could spot you, was much easier and faster to get to,
Then once there you could then decide weather to go left flank or right flank as to which defence seemed easier to defeat. (so you had a option instead of being stuck with the decision which had to be made from the start of the battle with little info.)
Those 3 on my left were indeed a pain to deal with. I decided on smoking them but that didn't help targeting either. My idea was to just keeping them obscured by smoke rounds until the end and or use the infantry guns against m. Guess they were ideally distanced to deal with the short barreled 75s.I got mixed results from my AT guns. Partly my fault as I waited way too long to open up with them. I put 3 on the left mound which only got about 5 tanks before all getting killed. The other 3, I put way over on my right flank. Which worked great, they got more kills and was harder for the enemy to deal with. 2 of these survived the battle.
The reinforcements came in to save the trench on my left flank as it was now overrun. So they retook that but I was still trying to deal with his 3 PaK guns. So that slowed me down getting to the middle two trenches. Enemy was able to just barely hold on to two of the Obj.s to contest them. I should of been more aggressive trying to kick him out but just simply ran outta time.
Good game from @Lethaface for the first half of the battle and well done finishing this battle by @SlySniper Good times!