S
smithcorp
Guest
Been a while since I played Tank Warfare Tunisia 43, so I dipped my toe in again with Chewy as Allies. The first battle at the farm reminded me of probably the number one thing players should know - Stuarts trip over their own feet. I wanted to use the walled farm on the top of the hill south of the pass as an armour strongpoint. I placed one troop of Stuarts at the rear in cover, intending to push into the farm once I knew the German axis of attack.
First contact was armour coming up the road, but I lost a whole tank troop - they pushed the walls down then fell over on their backs and sides - like a quarter of my armour force knocked out before a shot was fired.
I thought I was done for once the Germans combined the direct attack up the road with a left hook. My halftracks fought bravely on the right flank but soon Panzers (what seemed like IIIs, IVs and a PZ2) had got in close. Amazingly, my remaining Stuarts did an amazing job, picking off Panzers one by one and holding off advancing infantry until finally a Panzer retreated back down the road, followed by infantry, leaving the rest of the enemy armour smoking wrecks. I pulled off a decisive victory, but at a heavy cost. A lot of my Stuarts were banged up.
The second battle was just to the west - an expected push down the hill to the south. I gambled with my mostly busted and incompletely-crewed Stuarts and set up an L-shaped defence, with tanks facing the flank of the expected attack and halftracks to the front. It was a slaughter. Truck-mounted infantry advanced right into the kill sack and got carved up. I took a single casualty (wounded) while the Germans took 40+ casualties and retreated off the field.
I didn't have it much my way for the next turn. I held off a push on the Farm from the rest of the German armour (and saw the PZIIIs suffer from the same collision tomfoolery as the Stuarts), managing to disable or destroy everything they managed to get on the objective, but the next battle which was a German push against my recon unit was a defeat. We gave them a bunch of casualties, but they mortared the hell out of us and we retreated off the field.
Next turn saw a push against my retreated recon unit where I managed to use my two remaining operational Stuarts to punish an infantry push supported by what seemed a single tank. In the end my units were in tatters but I took a victory overall. None of my reinforcing tank companies got involved (came onto the map from the east in the last turn, but not used) - I may have not done something right on the operational map (which is still a bit of a mystery to me).
Great game and I find I play it with little direct intervention. A lot of time at deployment and a few orders at the start of the fight, but I mostly let the AI handle things, accepting that they may make some mistakes, but generally they carry out their tasks.
Maybe Cactus Farm next.
First contact was armour coming up the road, but I lost a whole tank troop - they pushed the walls down then fell over on their backs and sides - like a quarter of my armour force knocked out before a shot was fired.
I thought I was done for once the Germans combined the direct attack up the road with a left hook. My halftracks fought bravely on the right flank but soon Panzers (what seemed like IIIs, IVs and a PZ2) had got in close. Amazingly, my remaining Stuarts did an amazing job, picking off Panzers one by one and holding off advancing infantry until finally a Panzer retreated back down the road, followed by infantry, leaving the rest of the enemy armour smoking wrecks. I pulled off a decisive victory, but at a heavy cost. A lot of my Stuarts were banged up.
The second battle was just to the west - an expected push down the hill to the south. I gambled with my mostly busted and incompletely-crewed Stuarts and set up an L-shaped defence, with tanks facing the flank of the expected attack and halftracks to the front. It was a slaughter. Truck-mounted infantry advanced right into the kill sack and got carved up. I took a single casualty (wounded) while the Germans took 40+ casualties and retreated off the field.
I didn't have it much my way for the next turn. I held off a push on the Farm from the rest of the German armour (and saw the PZIIIs suffer from the same collision tomfoolery as the Stuarts), managing to disable or destroy everything they managed to get on the objective, but the next battle which was a German push against my recon unit was a defeat. We gave them a bunch of casualties, but they mortared the hell out of us and we retreated off the field.
Next turn saw a push against my retreated recon unit where I managed to use my two remaining operational Stuarts to punish an infantry push supported by what seemed a single tank. In the end my units were in tatters but I took a victory overall. None of my reinforcing tank companies got involved (came onto the map from the east in the last turn, but not used) - I may have not done something right on the operational map (which is still a bit of a mystery to me).
Great game and I find I play it with little direct intervention. A lot of time at deployment and a few orders at the start of the fight, but I mostly let the AI handle things, accepting that they may make some mistakes, but generally they carry out their tasks.
Maybe Cactus Farm next.
