Turn 53 German 10pm Night - south
Cesar (Indragnir) has halted the Pz Lehr sotie and is probably resting them now. In the replay it looks like 5th FJD Bn was disrupted by my artillery last turn?
The bad news is he has started a new sortie. (Group D) I think it was the 352nd (C morale unit?) which advanced first against my 51st Arm Inf. (sorry wrong label on unit) The 352nd must have disrupted from the night move. (4th AD) He then brought down quite a bit of artillery on the 51st and advanced the 212th. (B morale?) The 212th lost 16 men to opportunity fire and artillery and also disrupted. I think this must have then caused Cesar to use all of 7th Army's artillery against the hapless unit. The 51st went from 559 men/13 fatigue to 371 men/164 fatigue.......yep 188 men. Nebelwerfers took out 44 men with one salvo but possibly this was more than one unit combined firing.
I think the morale is that you cannot sit in Clear and not dig in in the south, he has too much artillery to call on.
I also lost an M7 Priest when he targted it. This is a novelty for me as Michael never counter batteried anything.
Miraculously the 51st recovered from disruption, which is the advantage of a good B class unit in good command. Not much use however to me.
51st patrols show Cesar probably rearranging things in Boevange (E) and suspect this is night disruption effects?
My turn? Well I have enough artillery to probably get 100-150 against the two VGD units sitting in Clear. I'll probably stop at 40+ each however, and rest some of my artillery which is 70+ fatigue. I see no point in using more than 40 as 40 will do the job.
I will also have to take better care of my artillery and dig in in woods if possible.
Turn 53 German 10pm Night - Margerotte - Warnach
High level map as no action. Patrols show him digging in still at Bastogne and also at Margerotte where he is adjacent to 26th Div/501st Para Rgt. I believe its the Fuhrer Begleit Bde at Bastogne as well.
No rest for him tonight. I'l probably just use artillery and tanks at Margerotte and let sleeping dogs lie at Bastogne. I'll wait for morning but I don't want to send Paras up against armour? I need an armoured division here. 29th Armd Bde would have been a good idea. Will check reinforcement schedule when I do my turn.
Sainlez and Warnach are still occupied.
Turn 53 German 10pm Night - Bertogne
The wood attacks by 2nd Pz/2nd SS Pz has been halted, and he has not followed up my last pull back. A PzIV group was left behind and used the 2-423rd for target practice. Results were not high so I guess this unit is a low 10-15 tanks?
An assault gun unit from 26th came bowling down the road and stopped in T mode adjacent to 504th/508th? It spotted for some artillery against 1-504th. I fired 4 times for Opportunity Fire for 3 NE's and 1 Fatigue hit? If my Paras had been VGD they would have taken out about 3 guns.......
Apart from that he decided to pick on the 3-506th. This was well hit by direct fire and artillery fire. All return/opportunity fire failed. The tanks must have shielded his infantry.
He also used counter battery again, except the Infantry HQ's stacked with the guns took the hits.
Patrols show 26th VGD digging in, except for one unit in the Clear. (no point I suppose)
My turn? I will probably withdraw the 3-506th (93 fat) but hold with the 1-502nd. Just to make sure he doesn't advance and cut the road. If he is just going to hold and dig in where he is that would be fine.
However this doesn't quite fix things for the road. That 26th VGD unit in the Clear (E) has a zoc on the road and is clearly effecting supply. (See white figures) The supply levels of the units north of it are pretty low. I think I need to get a unit in the hex or else I'll probably get Ammo-Fuel Lows for these units after next turn? (midnight turn?)
Pity your original opponent quit, good thing that somebody else took over.
I can understand wanting to quit if you know you're going to lose, but for this battle pushing far enough so you might get at least a draw is presumably what it's all about for the Germans, which makes it odd to quit.
If he didn't have fun playing anymore, that makes things more understandable, as completing a lengthy campaign game that you don't really want to play anymore could be frustrating.
As to the HQ in a swamp hex: could it be that, somehow, it is treated as being in T-mode as it could not otherwise enter the hex, even though there's no road there?
Otherwise, it would have to be a pretty big stack of artillery if the terrain gives a -40 penalty to incoming fire.
(09-20-2015, 08:07 AM)ComradeP Wrote: [ -> ]Pity your original opponent quit, good thing that somebody else took over.
I can understand wanting to quit if you know you're going to lose, but for this battle pushing far enough so you might get at least a draw is presumably what it's all about for the Germans, which makes it odd to quit.
If he didn't have fun playing anymore, that makes things more understandable, as completing a lengthy campaign game that you don't really want to play anymore could be frustrating.
As to the HQ in a swamp hex: could it be that, somehow, it is treated as being in T-mode as it could not otherwise enter the hex, even though there's no road there?
Otherwise, it would have to be a pretty big stack of artillery if the terrain gives a -40 penalty to incoming fire.
I don't blame Michael for giving in as I felt the same many times early on in the game. In fact if he had been a bit more aggressive and had been willing to take more chances then that would have probably tipped things. Michael played a pretty straight forward game with no cheesy moves or dancing that I could detect. I like the way he plays.
Well the HQ's entered the Swamp when it was frozen and treated as Clear. No road so when it unfreezes and becomes a Swamp again its stuck. Same with tracked units. Only motorised infantry can get out because they can go 'on foot'.
Its a pity that HQ's (motorised) can't go 'on foot' but then we would also have to add code to prevent them 're-motorising' any on 'on foot' sub unit which stacked with them. Or else it wouldn't make sense that the HQ didn't have transport for itself but did have transport for a unit which stacked with it.
Normally, the only way a motorized HQ unit could end in that hex is if it's in T-mode on a road, which is why I wondered how the game treats the HQ now that it's in a hex it can't normally enter.
Okay, you guys got me curious about this HQ in the marsh situation. Easy enough to set up a test and see. Sure enough, for any man type unit that is motorized, in a marsh, not ON FOOT, it does not get the benefit of a negative terrain modifier. As soon as it goes ON FOOT, it gets the benefit of the terrain modifier - and of course if it can't go on foot, it can't get this benefit.
on the other hand, in some of the games the marsh modifier is positive, I believe, and that means not going on foot is probably a benefit as I assume it prevents the positive modifier from being applied. Or maybe the code purposely applies the greater of values between ignoring the terrain mod and nothing, if not on foot. I am not going to bother testing, but you have the answer, and it surprises me.
Rick