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Ok, so [hirr]Leto is off on some silly taco narrative in his thread. None of that here. I'm a CM traditionalist, and I'm tired of seeing this message board hijacked for off topic chatter irrelevant to CM. No silly blathering about things that have nothing to do with Combat Mission such as clickies, thread ratings, CMSF, or, worst of all, rugby.

Since Leto is going to be more concerned with spinning some improbable burrito and bean dip themed yarn than giving any kind of sound tactical advice, here's what I'm going to do, just as a special treat for you: I'm going to give you both sides of the DAR! How will I do that you ask? Simple – I have Kreskin like abilities to read Leto’s mind. Plus he’s posting a DAR of this battle on another site. I just read it and reprint his musings here. Sure it’s cheating , but I don’t think I have a chance any other way.

The Game:

2000pt QB meeting engagement, unrestricted forces, village, gentle slopes, med trees, August ’43, in the rain.

(hirr)Leto Wrote:The Coil let me pick the parameters. I fully expect him to chose Germans, since most half-wit chumps who fancy themselves to be decent CM players go for German uber-tanks any chance they get. Little does Coil know I have a plan to deal with his big tanks.

Anyway, he foolishly let me do the set-up, so I’ve generated a few different games, and peeked at the map to make sure I’ve got one that favors me. I’m going with one that has a nice straight road into the village for me. The Coil won’t have a chance.

I’d hate to disappoint. Make me Germans!

I don’t care if you do cheat on the set-up, Leto. I’m reading your DAR in progress, so it should balance out.

Force Selection:

(hirr)Leto Wrote:I expect The Coil to make some ham-handed noob picks, like bringing a platoon of Tigers or something. They shall probably all get stuck in the mud before they make it to the fight. At any rate, I’m bringing a bunch of guns and a platoon of M10s that should make short work of his armor given the flat land and open site lines. He’ll never know what hit ‘em. Ordinarily, I’m not one to rush the flags, but given that I’ve cherry-picked a map that’s guaranteed to get me to the flags first, I’m switching it up a bit this time.

Leto is expecting me to go for big tanks, and try to fight at range. He’s probably counting on his combo of guns and some AFVs to be able to kill (or at least m-kill or gun damage) a few big tanks and put me out of action. I also don’t like the idea of driving Tigers or something around in the rain.
At the same time, I’m a big fan of armor in a battle like this. If you don’t win the armor war, infantry isn’t going to win you the game (I realize a lot of players much better than me are big believers in infantry dominance. They are all fools. They keep beating me because of luck, not because of my utter lack of strategic and tactical acumen. Trust me.) Hoping the sheer amount of armor will overwhelm Leto. Accordingly, I’m bringing a vet platoon of panzer IVH’s, a platoon of green Stugs (made me feel dirty buying them, but there you go), and a platoon of reg Grilles (to blow Leto’s infantry hordes away). Along with that comes one of them companies of recon FJs with 2 MGs, a sharpshooter, a few 81mm mortars, 2 20mm AA guns (to protect flanks and deal with light armor), and an AC. My plan is pretty straightforward: dominate whatever armor he brings (probably no more than a platoon of Shermans and one of M10s), and nuke his infantry with HE the rest of the game. Simple.

Setup:

(hirr)Leto Wrote:Setup? Are you kidding? Have you seen the size of my ELO??? I don't have to worry about setting up my stinking forces, I'm just that good. I just plunk my dudes down wherever, it really doesn't matter. I mean, I am playing the Coil here. No sense wasting a bunch of time on the set up. By the way, have I mentioned how huge my ELO is?

Well, that, and the gamey map you picked with the road straight into the village, Mr. Leto...

Here's what it looks like from my side:



Dang road runs right into the heart of the village. If Leto uses it, he'll get there first. The good news is, I've got some decent sight lines into the village, and even behind it, I might be able to hit him going in if he tries the charge up the road.

Also, there's a slight ridge running across most of the left side of the map a bit behind the village. This is very good news for me - Leto won't be able to set up guns in the back with LOS to my half of the map. I look for him to try to tow some guns into patches of woods on the back side of the ridge and push them through, so I'm paying attention to likely patches of woods.

The basic setup is:

The 5 Panzers on the road on the left, 3 are going to make a dash up the road, and try to flank the village. Other two have LOS to the road into the village. They'll take potshots at anything coming in.

Stugs go in the middle, they'll head up to the village, mounting 2 inf squads and an HQ. They're backed by 3 of the Grilles with LOS into the village, the last Grille is at the back on my left.

One platoon of inf goes into the big patch of pines on the center-right. They'll work their way through it to the right flank of the village. An HQ, a mortar, and the cracker sniper go far left to watch the flank of my panzer platoon.

Two AA guns go where they can each watch a flank, the one on the left also has decent LOS down the road. An improvised inf platoon also goes for the scattered cover in the middle left.

I don't have anything on the right third of the map, if Leto wants to flank there, he'll have a long way to go, over damp ground. Should be able to spot and adjust if he tries it.

Turn 1:

(hirr)Leto Wrote:Let me see, what to do. On the one hand, I could employ a stunning combined arms strategy, slowly dismantling The Coil's forces in an amazing display of CM skillz. On the other hand, I could just march a bunch of men straight up the road. Which shall it be?

Leto's boys coming charging down the road on my left in a little infantry parade (I shan't speculate on their um..."orientation"). My Panzers coming up the road treat them to a little MG fire, and by the end of the turn, they're crawling for cover and crying for their mommies:



Get away from my tacos, you little bandits!

Only other action is a sound contact on a tank in the middle, and a plume of smoke next to the road into the village, maybe covering Leto's advance.

Plan for turn 2: Keep the advance going, drop a Grille round or two on the road near that smoke, on the dual theories that 1) something might be coming up the road and 2) hey, I've got a lot of HE rounds available. My panzers also get pause orders for 30 seconds and area fire the infantry heading for cover, thinking that I'll probably lose LOS as they start sneaking. They then continue their advance up the road.

Turns 2 and 3:

Not much action on turn 2. My panzers area fire Leto's scattering infantry parade on the left, then advance up to the church.

In the middle, I drop two Grille rounds on the road into the village right next to Leto's puff of smoke, hoping to catch a convoy headed into the village. No such luck...

Leto sends me an email talking about my Stugs on the left and asking if that means the Tiger is coming up the middle. Either Leto has misidentified my Panzers, or is just playing for me to drop him some info in response. Or he's just clueless. I've found your sharper players often try for little email intelligence prods - the unwary opponent easily can drop info: I say something like, "No, the Stugs are in the middle, stupid," and he knows something. People give away all sorts of info in emails, like revealing that a bailing tank has been KO'd or that an arty strike hit paydirt. Loose lips sink ships...or taco farms or whatever. I send Leto an innocuous reply suggesting there's more than one Tiger - tells him nothing about my forces on the right, and hopefully keeps him thinking about uber-tanks...

Turn 3 passes fairly uneventfully - my panzers start angling for flank shots on the village, my infantry boys continue their march forward to the village, a Grille gets to work taking down the 2-story building next to the smoke, on the theory that if Leto isn't covering an advance up the road, he's covering something going into the building that will have LOS to a good part of my advance.

Last 15 seconds of the turn, a HE round from a Priest behind the village goes off behind my Stugs, and I lose a Stug commander to MG fire.



My infantry riding the Stugs gets a bit jittery, but that Priest is in trouble if he doesn't slam it into reverse. My guess is Leto was hoping to pick up a quick HC Tiger kill, if indeed I was sending a big tank up the middle. Mr. Priest is going to get a bit more than he bargained for, I hope...

Interesting that Leto went with the Canadians. National pride over prudence I guess. That means just Sherms and Priests, methinks, unless he brings some gamey multinational force to the battle.

Turn 4:

(hirr)Leto Wrote:The Coil is craftier than I thought. He has gunned down my infantry parading down the road in the open. He has defeated my lone Priest. I have nothing left to throw at him, aside from my enormous ELO.

Only turn 4, and Leto is already near despair...

In the middle, my Stugs take a few potshots at his Priest before it backs out of LOS, resulting in this slightly demoralizing moment:



The Priest skitters to safety unharmed, dang it. It's an American Priest, confirming my suspicions that Leto has bought a gamey underhanded mixed nationality of forces. At least his boys will have trouble coordinating their attack, as I bet you a dollar his Americans don't speak Canadian.

A little infantry dude goes sneaking out of that 2-story building in the village right before I drop it - Leto did indeed have a little scout hanging out in there. I also get a brief glimpse of 3 units heading into the back of the village. Here's what the village looks like:



He's going to get the flags first - never good, but my Grilles can happily level the town when I need them to, assuming Leto doesn't plink them all first...

Turn 5

{hirr}Leto Wrote:The Coil appears to be moving his armor around almost at random on the left side of the map. If there is a strategy behind it, I can't imagine what it might be. Since I have demonstrated already that I have no shame, inasmuch as I've selected a gamey map and a gamey force, I'll now go for the trifecta and employ some gamey tactics. Watch as I sneak a bunch of TDs right down the sideline behind his aimless Panzers.

Yike! My two panzers cutting in towards the village drive themselves into the LOS of a TD pack. Thought they could sprint across the open ground to get behind some woods and protect their flank, but they've got a ways to go. A bunch of shots are traded to no effect. Lucky both my panzers didn't get potted, and they stink shooting on the move, so I don't have much hope they'll score any hits on the TDs. They end the turn about 150m from cover behind the woods.

Leaves me with a choice for the next turn: I can cancel their move orders and shoot it out or run for cover. If I cancel their orders, their hit chance goes up quite a bit, but I've got two Panzers facing the wrong way in a fight with 3 (maybe more) TDs. Probably lose them both, maybe take a TD or two with me. If I run for cover, I probably won't get any of the TDs, but might save a Panzer or two. I elect to run, hoping I can get them behind cover to fight another day. If I can save them, I have a better shot later at bringing all my Panzers to bear at once on the pack...

Here's the big picture at the end of turn 5:



Infantry advancing in the middle, backed by the Stugs and the Grilles deep. One Grille continues to lob HE into the village along likely paths of advance for Leto's infantry. Two Panzers engaged in the center left by TDs on my far left. Another Panzer and an AC on the road by the church. Last two panzers further back on the road to the left - I'm bringing them up next turn to try to engage Leto's TD pack with all my Panzers at once.

Turn 6

I can hear the nacho themed cackling going on in Leto's thread from all the way over here. He draws first (serious) blood with a solid hit on my Panzer at the beginning of the turn. Bad news, and even worse if he gets the other...



Luck (or skill or whatever) is with me, as the second Panzer makes it to safety.

Over in the village, Leto's boys are moving up:



I make note of their locations for future leveling by the Grilles. Leto's little scout from the building takes refuge in a crater in the middle of the road behind the smoke. Poor little guy probably thinks he's well hidden, but he'll get nuked when the smoke clears...

Turn 7

*hirr*Leto Wrote:The Coil's Panzers flee before my onslaught. He was a fool to challenge me! Did he really think his CM skillz were a match for mine?

Yeah, yeah... For the record, The Coil thinks anything better than a tactical defeat is a win in his book.

Turn 7 passes fairly uneventfully - I spend it preparing a little counterattack on Leto's tank pack. To that end, I bring my two Panzers in reserve forward to join my Panzer and AC on the road by the church, in a little dip out of LOS of the pack (they have a brief scary moment of driving through LOS of the pack, but move too quick for anyone to get a shot off). My fourth Panzer, having narrowly escaped with his life, rotates back to face Leto's tank pack. Leto is moving infantry up through the woods on the left of the road, I have to move quick to hit his TDs before the infantry gets into the fight.

Here's how things look in the melee on the left:



The next turn will either 1) serve as an illustration of the limitations of a tank pack or 2) get my whole panzer force killed.

My plan is to engage Leto with all the panzers at once, from a few different angles. Hopefully the slow moving M10 turrets won't be able to traverse between targets quick enough, and I can bag his TDs while he's switching targets. Here's how I'll work it: The AC on the road gets orders to fast move forward just into LOS of the pack, command delay 11 seconds, so he'll move first. The Panzer next to him starts moving forward at 13 seconds, also just into LOS. The two rear panzers get reverse orders and 13 second command delays to bring them into LOS slightly further back down the road. The last Panzer is ordered to move forward, back into the death trap he just escaped, timed to bring him into LOS right about the same time as the other panzers. Everyone gets cover arcs centered on the TD pack. Here's how I'm hoping it plays out: The AC drives into LOS first, gets targeted by the whole pack, and a few TDs get shots off. As they're reloading, all my panzers pull into view. Leto's TDs will be reloading or have to resight on my 4 panzers, who are shooting from 3 different directions. Meanwhile, I have a mortar across the map who happens to have LOS to the pack dropping rounds, hoping for shocks/lucky top hits/hits on that unit riding one of Leto's TDs.

If all goes well, Leto loses his pack. All goes poorly, I lose my Panzers and probably the game...