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The Gods of War have indeed been fickle... looks like Lady luck's wearing the stars and stripes in this battle. It'll be up to the German grunts to save this one for Moondog.

"Death of a squad"

Going back to minute 13, Sergeant Diaz and his squad of regulars are hunkered down in a patch of scattered trees by the central church. The squad has already taken a beating from stug HE and MG42 fire up the road - Diaz has lost four men and his squad is recovering from an earlier routed condition - now they are all permanently rattled and more likely to panic or rout when faced with enemy fire again. He knows he's got to get them out of those scattered trees. Finally the order comes - he is to run his squad through the nearby house and aross the road, out of LOS of the enemy. The nearby 105mm barrage appears to be over.



The men run for it. They hustle through the house, jostling tables and avoiding windows. So far so good. Maybe the worst is over.



But just as the squad sprints into the road - KABLAAAM!! - a 105mm shell smashes into the street - the enemy barrage is not over! The brittle squad is rattled already and instantly goes into panic mode, even though no one was killed by this blast. Diaz screams "Keep moving!!" but no one is listening. The nearby tanks button up - there's nothing they can do to help the men caught in the street.



The whimpering men slither into a shell hole in the street. They are all still 44% exposed but anything beats the 90% exposure of the dirt road. Suddenly another blast goes up about six meters from the helpless men. The merciless 105mm shells have a blast rating of 115. The shells are more than twice as powerful as the stug HE that the squad had been hit with in the scattered trees. The superheated metal fragments and road gravel tear through the air and into the men, killing three of them instantly.



The shells keep coming like rain from hell itself. Each burst is answered by another helpless scream. In this shot another boy dies and the squad becomes broken.



And still another....



The minute ends but, as usually happens, shells that were in the air keep falling. This one hits the tops of the scattered trees in the area and kills two more boys.



Only one private crawls out of the horrible carnage, the blood, skin, and hair of his sergeant and his buddies spattered all over his uniform and face. He slinks under the tank and into some scattered trees beyond. He has no ordered thoughts - no thought of tomorrow or yesterday - only to hide - curl up and hide - make it all go away - far away....he was the lucky one. Or was he? He will have to carry that horror in his mind the rest of his life.

I like doing that, putting an adjustment on the arty to delay it after firing for a while. Nothing like dropping the last 10 rounds on the enemy who figures it is all over and moves into the open.

Minute 16:

Within the space of three minutes Moondog has lost his vet Tiger and two regular stugs, while Arrow still has his four Shermans. Moondog is down to a regular stug and a crack Pz IVH. This is all he has to keep Arrow's AFVs from overrunning him and his men. Here at the beginning of minute 16, he is being oh so careful. He gingerly wedges his last stug safely between a house and some trees. Arrow's two Shermies downtown are blocked by buildings and the other two are blocked by a tall hedge. Surely this stug can relax here and leisurely area fire some US infantry, right?



WRONG - about 30 seconds into the turn a US shell mysteriously slams into the vehicle, knocking it out. Where did that shell come from?



Turns out it was from Arrow's last living 57mm gun. Remember that sweet spot in the woods? Well here it is from Arrow's viewpoint. A knockout from over 700 meters!



From Moondog's view, the gun is so far away he only gets a sound contact icon for about 40 seconds, and then even that disappears. That means if Moondog isn't paying extremely close attention, he may even miss the sound contact icon, and will have no information at all as to what hit him. He's also already used up his 81mm mortars. Interestingly, here we can see how odd the FOW can be. Though over 700 meters away, if Moondog were to zoom down over the generic icon here, he could actually hear the US crew shout "We got him!" That's why it pays to pan the camera all around the battleground - you may pick up some hints from the enemy that way.



Only one bad break for Arrow - one of his Shermans immobilized while moving through a field towards the church. But it is still in a fairly good spot to use its gun.

Meanwhile, Moondog's once proud German tank force has now been reduced to one Elite Panzer IVH. Only one card left to play vs. 4 Shermans and a hiding 57mm ATG! Now where are all those guys who were saying the Allies don't have a chance in CMAK?

What would you armchair commanders do at this point with that last Elite Pz IVH?

You still have to find a way to go over to the attack, Defence plays to the Americans. Taunt those shermans into the town where you have good odds with you infantry for a takout.

Quote:What would you armchair commanders do at this point with that last Elite Pz IVH?

Seek a ceasefire...

:smoke:

Shoot and scoot!

As an elite this guy can shoot and scoot all day and be unlucky to get nailed AND expect to pick off a sherman evry third shot or so.

Not sure what he's got left from the write up but his inf should still have the upper hand and be able to hold the Shermans off at short range so measured advance with the infantry with the elite PzIV on Shoot and Scoot over watch, keep him (the PzIV) moving and out of LOS when he's not firing.

Here is a shot of the downtown area at the close of minute 17. The lines indicate the zones of control for both sides. We can see where Arrow's Sherman immobilized. The other Shermans are remaining in a defensive stance, which they've had good luck with so far. Moondog's Elite IVH is also seen firing at some foot infantry.



At the Northen flag, both sides have good footholds in patches of woods and seem content to exchange fire right where they are, but arrow still holds the flag.



Moondog has been silent since losing almost all of his armor, but Arrow sent this message today:

"Armor,
I flushed out the HT's with Arty and finished with troops throwing grenades over hedges (never stay near a hedge you don't control) and Tanks. I figure I'd pick the low hanging fruit first. My team taking out the Panther was a poor end point from my opponent, Tiger was a lucky shot, With the two STUG's we both moved firing positions and both first shots missed or were not effective on each side my second shots hit. The other STUG finally got in LOS of my 57MM.
He still has a P4 which I think is the weakest tank in the game, thin turret armor, absolutely hate them.

Infantry,
I have moved on and captured 4 flags.
I did not expect the amount of troops he sent at my right flank. But he is starting to run flamethrowers, which is a sign of desperation. My right flank is still pretty weak, but I know he is running out of ammo, so I can wait.

He has the flag on my left flank and the one in the middle closest to him. I can't touch those.

The main battle as I thought would be fought at knifepoint in the middle. His main effort is strong and threatening. My advantage in armor may hold we'll see. His arty purchase has really attrited my troops, but I kept a platoon in reserve to use for this problem.

Current Strategy:
Take out his last tank and seal off the main routes to the flags

Lee"

Message from commander Moondog today:

"My strategy hasn't worked mainly because I didn't follow it. You may remember I had originally planned a sweep round to my left with full support to overwhelm and clear that flank and then head in towards the village. Instead I allowed my armour to get dragged into the centre dropping off MG's and left the company on my left alone and struggling.

I had forseen this company taking both those flags on my left as I didn't think there would be much opposition but they have now got bogged down in fighting which looks like a stalemate or worse as I don't have the necessary numbers to take that flag and Arrow has been slowly reinforcing the position from the bridge and I have no way of responding.

In the centre I have made some silly mistakes, like the Panther move round the back to link up with the Tiger.... that failed in spectacular fashion, but I have also been very unlucky with the armour duels. Every single duel has been one shot one kill. How often does German armour get screwed that easily?

Having said that, Arrow has played his hand very well and got my last stug with a well placed gun. How he got one up there I don't know unless it's been there from the start. Good placement anyway and something I could have done without. It's still a threat now !!

I'm now down to one tank. It's Elite but still no match for the speedy turrets and lethal targeting that Arrows tanks have been displaying and I still can't work out which is his Elite one as they have all been so quick. My pz IV is not likely to get any more luck than the rest of my armour so I'm not sure what to do with it at the moment except use the HE on the Infantry and keep it alive.

As for the Infantry in the centre, in reality a commander would retire at this point and stop attacking or risk getting fragged as I don't have the necessary odds, but I will keep harrassing Arrow for the fun of the game and see if I can pinch another flag before the end.

This has been a real test so far, and no offence meant to my regular opponents but I win a lot of games way too easily without having to do much as my opponents kill themselves, but this has been a real tough challenge. Some may say it's about time I got my arse kicked and brought down to earth a bit If so, they will enjoy watching this game very much. :-)"

Fight Moondog! FIGHT! Nothing is over as long as that Elite PzIVH lives! Nothing better than having your back up against the wall and snatching victory from the jaws of defeat! FIGHT Damn you! You DAMN DIRTY APE!
Lord Bane