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the british reeinforcments never had a chance to reach any of their objectives. they were destroyed on the road by axis airpower and artillery.

Many trucks and even one matilda tank were captured after it was immobilised by artillery and the crew dismounted. this makes it possible to bring the apc platoon back to strength as well as the tank platoon that now consists of a p2,3,38 an A10 and a matilda 2.

Also one of the Fallschirmjaegerplatoons stays in the KG since the company command was lost while the glider carrying it crashed.

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After the succesful airborne operation, the Allies are beginning to evacuate the island. While most forces stream towards the ports in the south, some retreat into the mountains to make their stand there.

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oh no sounds like a painful battle ahead. KG Hauser is the lucky bunch that was choosen to keep the forces dug in in the mountains busy and if possible force them to surrender by kinetic action.

In this Battle they are reinforced by a platoon of paratroopers.

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as they advance along the sothern coast of crete in order to intercept the anzac and greek forces trying to flee the island KG Hauser men also observe some groups of the enemy moving into position on the hills and mountains. The gebirgsajeger,croats and the fallschirmjaeger are dispatched to deal with them while the slovaks bulgarians and first company advance further along the coast.

the weather is good and air support is avaible in the form of 4 stuka divebombers. Enemy artillery and AD hasnt been scouted out yet so we dont know how much resistance we face.

the last battle hasnt seen much artillery so there might still be a number of guns avaible to the enemy.

The terrain is difficult so it might not be possible to occupy all the high ground in short time.more important is the captureof the harbour and the coastal road before the allies can escape.

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Here some views from the battle. one shows the slovaks advancing into the harnour aided by all the heavier guns of the artillery and the other one shows the progress in the mountains.

the gebirgsjaeger have taken the first peak and are now continuing the advance on the second objective. they had lots of direct fire support from the mortar units and machine guns. to the north one sniper keeps harrasing the falschirmjaeger who will have to rush him soon. and to the south one can see the bulgarians advancing on the second mountain objective.

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So after 4 hours of fighting the harbour was taken cutting of the retreating anzac units which then had to surrender. the main part of the fighting was done by the slovaks who earned themselves a place in the reserve in the next battles. its time another unit can proove its skills.

In the process the ANZAC commander was taken prisoner along with some of his staff.

The fighting in the mountins was till ongoing with a platoon worth of commandos sniping at the bulgarians and gebirgsjaeger. they will probably melt away in the night we might get a artisan problem in this area.

Otherwise losses were acceptable even if the end abit to high because the troops had a bit more then their allowed ration of slibovica which led to unnecessary heroism and causalities.

Nice mix of units and once again a good scenario. I can only repeat how much more fun that is then the usual log campaign.

now we could return to colonel baggio and his men fighting the british in the desert while KG Hauser prepares for the next missions (i hear they are planned to take part in the invasion of moldavia [along with the a romanian infantry group])

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Let's do one last crete mission first (already made it over the weekend). The last evacuation port is in Chora Sphakion.

About the plan after this, I think we should go straight into Barbarossa and then link up with the Italians in Africa 1942 (already have some nice plans for this). I would also be careful about expanding the core force too much, especially with more infantry units. Otherwise battles will become too large and in my experience the larger the battle, the less special and memorable it becomes.

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So the fighting in crete continued for KG HAUSER.

The men were exhausted from the previous days of heavy fighting but HQ ordered them to do one last task taking the port of Chora Sphakion. Intelligence reports were non existant (Hint hint ;)) So !st company who would be leading the attack this time prepared to move slowly and carefully.

I am travelling the next months so it might me take some time to finish that scenario just so you know. i hope i will find the time to play at least a few turns each day.

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But the Barbarossa attack will go through moldova? If yes i will change the nationality to romania to get romanian ranks for the new units. Otherwise i will use Hungarians

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Yeah, I mean no Italians until after Barbarossa. Where exactly it takes place is up to you.
By ;) do you mean I should write more detailed briefings?

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yes it would be nice to have some kind of mission description and maybe some small intelligence report that can of course be not 100 % accurate.

You can be as eloquent as your time permits :)

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after marching through the mountains in the hot days of May KG hauser reaches one of the last harbours the allies control. Again its theri mission to cut off retreating anzac and greek forces by capturing the cityon the coast.

the main attack will go in from the south were the distance to the coast is the shortest whichmeans there is less ground to place defenses on. also the approach is a bit protected.

the bulgarians and the fallschirmjaeger will move slowly through the hills adding pressure on the flanks while the 1st company with the help of the gebirgsjaeger and the slovaks as reserve will be the main effort.

This is a chance for K-Plt of Oberleutnant Schwarz to proove itself. its the econd time it was rebuild with fresh recruits after its men were used to man the captured guns after heavy losses made the platoon ineffective in combat.

the weather is fine with a clear sky giving perfect opportunity for air attack. As the stukas dive in they are met by heavy defense fire. one is damaged but all manage to drop their bombs achieving no visible results other then a few destroyed buildings. There seems to be at least one platoon of 20mm gns as well as some 40mm guns in town.

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here is the map

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Merry Christmas!

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and merry christmas to you too!

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turn 18: the 1st kompanie hastaken the church in the south of the city with the help of tanks and armored cars.
Just in time to intercept a company of anzac infantry that promptly gets taken prisoner.

in the north a armored group counterattacks but after a few minuits all that is left of the attack is a single matilda 2 tank.
the bulgarians and the fallschirmjager have reached the outskirts of the city and start to engage the uk infantry defending from the buildings situated along the coastline. They will fix them in place while the 1st kompanie and tanks roll up their souther flanks everything is going to plan.

The luftwaffe is down to 2 planes with 2 shot down and 2 damaged. They are sent to attack suspected mortar positins but the 20mm guns on a hill north of the harbour make it difficult to find the target.

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after 27 turns the battle is over. The S-35 was lost but fortunatly the one matilda 2 counterattacking could be immobilised and its crew surrendered leaving us with another working Matilda tank. Also the Falsschirmjaeger lost their scouts but they were replaced by some local volunteers.


Now with crete pacified. KG Hauser is transfered to to Romania where it is refited and the 37mm AT-Guns are turned in for STUGs.

Also a company of Romanian infantry is added to the command. They will help pathfinding while the battalion will guard the border with moldavia.

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Operation Barbarossa has begun!
Our forces have already broken through the Russian lines, now it is your job to exploit through and destroy reinforcing Soviet forces. The enemy consists of infantry divisions supported by some tank brigades. So far the Soviets have not put up strong resistance.

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After the invasion of moldavia has started and the first defensive lines have been broken KG Hauser is sent in for reconaissance in force meaning they should advance as far as possible. The weather is great and air support is present. As always we advance in broad line looking for the way with the weakest resistance. The romanians will take the village in the south the bulgarians slovaks and 1st kompanie will advance along the center and take blocking positions in case of a counterattack.


Meanwhile the Gebirgsjaeger with the help of the tanks platoon are moving along the northern flank trying to sneak around the flank.

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Situation after turn 17:

In the south the fallschirmjaeger have taken the small village while the roamians are advancing over the field.

In the center the crossroad with the little settlement has been taken and the slovaks move on to the big city in the east where most of the enemy artillery has been detected and is under sonstant attack of atrillery and luftwaffe units. so far they have managed to silence most of the russian guns.

In the north the gebirgsjaeger keep advancing over the field with the tanks following. A few squads of enemy infantry have been detected.

Now suddenly the russians are moving forward to counterattack and since KG Hausers units are advancing some chaotic fighting is expected. Since their artiller is more or less silenced i dont expect them to be able to do much in the end in a few turns they will be running back.

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Back to work back to play hehe

The advance was problrmfree in the centre and north and KG Hauser could take city and its artillery positions where many guns were captured.

In the south the russians managed a breakthrough through the recently captured village by pushing aside the falschirmjaegers who had to flee leaving some of theri comrades behind since the supporting stugs had not enough ammunition do take out all the attacking russians. one stug was also lost in the defence of this village.

luckily the one matilda from the recon group (haha) could take out some of the t-26 but here were still 10 russian tanks attacking when the scenario ended.

my explanation here is after loosing contact to their commanding offcers the confused russian tankers decided to turn back to their rear instaed of continuing theri advance even though they had already reched the rear of the german positions which were hastily retreating there artillery and trying to form some kind of defense. luckily for them the russians retreated on theri own.

the woods still hold a strong presence of russian infantry which might lead to some partisam problems later on.

All in all the operation was succesful and the advance can be continued. Care has to be taken to avoid future disatrous counterattacks by russian tank brigades

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Nice to see you are back. I got so bored I made two scenarios in advance :D

Anyway:

After several uncoordinated counter attacks, the Russian units in our sector retreated into the local marshes. Your Kampfgruppe is tasked with securing the road through these swamps, cutting apart the enemy pocket. The Russian forces are reported to be a chaotic assortment of conscripts and surviving tank brigade forces.
To help you navigate the swampy terrain some cavalry was assigned to your unit.

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So we are tasked to continue the advance through some swamplands.

The enemy seems to be retreating but we always have to be on the lookout for counterattacks. There are 2 possible ways to pass thisarea and our main effort will be along the northern line. here the terrain is favourable and there is some room for manuever.

The road further south seems to be perfect for beeing attacked from the flanks ven though the enmy would have to be in the swamps where it would be ahrd forhim to fight.

The cavalry and the bulgarinas will go along this road to see if they can advnce without meeting to much resistance. If they make it good if not we can concentrate on the northrn approach and they will just fix the enemy. Hopefully the commander of the bulgarian forces will adhere to his orders and advance carefully in order to conserve his forces.

in the north we have most of the tanks and 2 full infantry companies with the slovaks scouting. They do most of the fighting in these types of attacks anyway since there is seldom the possibility to commit more then one platoon directly to the attack. They should also conserve their manpower but lets se what ivan thinks about that. HQ expects us to move forward rapidly so we have a bit of a problem here.

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After some 22 turns (how much time was a turn again) the cavalry scouts have been able to close in to the westernmost objective in the south they just might be able to take it on schedule if there are no defenses there.

In the north the Slovaks have taken some heavy losses rushing into some Russian positions (the engineers lost 4 men ) they can not scout in assault missions until reinforcements have arrived now since the engineer platoon is to weak.

Even though progress is made and the Russian forces are only a speed bump. A thorn in the side was a kv-1 sitting in the swamplands. He destroyed the Russian mortar team hitting the mortars straight on. the surviving crew will be distributed into the rifle squads as well on a 45mm gun that was recently captured.

After destroying the mortars this KV-1 became a top priority for the troops in the area and after a few minutes a troop of Bulgarian engineers destroyed it with a flamethrower. This step should have been taken much earlier.

The artillerymen have taken their first losses for a long time to the russian 120mm mortars. we hope to capture one or two of them to use the ourselves. Very potent weapons. After some counterbatteryfire russian artilleyactivity has ceased completely and what is left of them in this sector is a lonely desorienter t-28 who manages to drver aound in the swamps without getting stuck while my men drop artillery shells on it without any success.

On to moskow!!


by the way ould you be interested to do the same for an allied unit? I would start in poland then flee gloriously to france north africa etc. what do you think ? :)

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Let's rather do one project at a time. BTW it wasn't clear from the text, are you done with this mission?

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Almost, 5 turns left i should finish it this evening. I guess i will reach all VH at least almost if there are anymore surprises.

Ok we stick to this story for now. You know i have already plans to continue it in SPMBT if you are interested but thats waaaaaay in the future (Remants of the unit will continue as mercenaries in hot spots all over the world)

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As the sun was going down Hausers men were still fighting in the two villages that had been his objectives for the day.

booth were heavily defended and he had to report to Divison HQ that they had not been able to advance as fast as planned. They had made substantial gains though and they had crossed the swamplands.

His losses were acceptable but the speed of the advance cost him in men and material they would not be able to contiue that way much longer...

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Shortly before the Kampfgruppe was to be pulled out of the line for a well deserved rest, an alarming message reached the commander:
The pocket around the swamp land had been closed, but the link was weak, with the infantry holding it all but exhausted. The Russians had apparently noticed this and started a breakout attempt aimed at the weakest part of the front. Ivan is throwing the heaviest tanks he has into the attack. Your unit is to bolster the defenses and hold off the attack. Several heavy at guns are also on the way to assist you in knocking out the 50 ton monsters.

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About the WinSPMBT suggestion from earlier: theoretically I am down, however, I do not have the same kind of knowledge and expertise about modern weapons and conflicts, so practically it might be a problem.

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there is still a lot of ww2 left to fight. We will see what to do when the war is over :)

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After resting just 2 days KG Hauser is thrown back into the line. The mission today is preventing a breakout of a trapped russian tank brigade.

Before reaching the blocking line established by an infantry company Hauser orders his men to spread out a bit. The bulgarians and romanians andvance on the flanks while the gebirgsjaeger and the 1st kompanie try to help out the defenders in the city.

The mobile units will advance along the road to see from where the russians are coming and what they are bringing to the party. Hopefully they can also spoil the attack a bit.

As the sun is coming up katyusha rockets start falling around the entrance of the city causing some causalities among the units in the first line. Hauser orders his men to advance carefully and stay of the road....

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Thirty minutes later with the sun now fully up the fields and woods laying below the railroadtracks are full with russian tankwrecks of all kinds and the many dead and wounded infantrymen that tried to break out of the kessel here.

The cavalryattack in the north is turned back and the bulgarians prepare to move forward and counterattack.

In the center the KV-1 and 2 are burning hulks thanks to 5 cm and 8.8 cm guns. the gebirgsjaegers are getting ready to counterattack here too.

In the south the russian attack never really started as the rumanians are crossing the bridge encoutering some KVs. luckily the heavy FLAK guns are covering them.

Only bad surprise was the high ammo capacity of the katyushas. hauser didnt decide to counterbattery them because he didnt believe the russians would have prepared ammo dumps for the rocketartillery but he was very wrong. This enede the war for the rumanians HMG -group leaving them without most of their heavy weapons for now after loosing the mortars in the last action.

There is still fighting all over the place but it looks like KG Hauser managed to stregthen the german lines enough to stop the russian breakthrough. Now its time for counterattack!

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all bridges are missing one part so its impossible to cross the river rapidly. is this done on purpose or just a glitch?

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That is probably a glitch... hmm will have to look out for that in the future.

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after one hour of intense fighting the russians have collapsed on the whole front. KG Hauser is now advancing in the center and south moving to eliminate the Kessel totally. at least 30 burning tank hulls lie around the road while the russians are taken prisoners by the dozens especially the conscript units are happy to escape the slaughter.

there are still 13 turns left but i dont expect anything to happen besides mopping up

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Can you give me a short overview over your forces at this point and how damaged they are etc?

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here you have my save game from turn 20 the whole kg is attacking with the slovaks and the fallschirmjaeger in reserve since they took some causalities

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i have 2 infantry companies at almost full strength and 2 that have lost maybe 10 men in total the rumanaians lost tehr mg s and mortars.

then i have two platoons that have one or two halfstregth squads and one tank platoon as well as an armored car platoon w one matilda slowely following the armored cars.

also i have 2 of 3 stugs up and running. rater inefective vehicles with the low ammo and ****ty mg. then 7 guns of small to medium size as well as 2 at guns and some machine guns and flak.

transport is done by 3 halftracks and a truck(the american truck represents a captured bedfod with aamg mounted)

i will try if i can somwhow incorporate a flight of messerschmitts into my core probably impossible but we shall see maybe some hexediting can do the trick.

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Even though casualties are mounting, your unit is back on the advance, without time for refitting or to take in replacements. Our next objective is a bridge over a major river. The Bolshevists are wiring it for detonation. It has been suggested to form a small, mobile task force to seize the bridge before they can destroy it. (On turn 6 several explosives will spawn on the bridge, which will then be blown by the Russians, destroying it)

If this coup de main fails, we still have access to barge carriers and some assault pioneers. This should help us to conquer the heigh ground on the other side of the river.

Spare your core forces, the road to Moscow seems longer and longer...

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After the surrender of the russians KG Hauser was given one afternoon rest and refit (ammonition) before starting on a night march to the front that already had moved a few kilometers further east during the day. HQ had a special mission for them was the rumor.....

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Btw, in case you didn't notice, but I am kind off trying to make your core force a bit smaller, especially in the infantry department. IMO once we reach north africa and add the Italians to the mix, things might get out of hand, battle size wise.

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they made me travel at work so i will not be able to play until next week. i am stuck in the planning for this mission looking for a way to advance fast and safely. next sunday i should get the first few turns in. The whole mission setup is very interesting!

the italians lost most of there artillery and askaris on the way sto libya i havent decided if they managed to bring the tanks probably only the crews made it and they will get new tanks(or the italian equivalent to it) from comando surpremo in tripolis.

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After marching through most of the night after a short rest for refuelling and ammo supply KG Hauser reached the bridge they were supposed to take. Quickly a plan was made up to reach it as fast as possible using artillery bomardments of the city on the western bank of the river. After a few minuits and destroying the sc in outs and tank on the way the gebirgsajeger companies first men reached the bridge.


There are 4 ammo dumps representing charges. i refrain from cheating and making the crews run away and i will take the probabale beating hehehe

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here is a map of the situation on the end of turn 6 i will se i fhte russians manage to set of the charges on the bridge.

the german units and the tanks are in the city the allies are moving to the harbourlike structures further north in anticipation of the pioneers and theri barges

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Yeah don't worry, even if the charges blow up in your face, you can still win the map. Just wanted to put a little twist on river crossing maps (I did a similar thing on my Za Rodinu! campaign).

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i appreciate that as i said many times before its much much better then playing a generated campaign!

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The first scouts of 1st kompanie made it on the bridge and cut the wires of the demolition charges (i take the crews out hope that is alright). one charge is left but its well in reach. it looks like the russians didnt manage to blow the bridge. so now it is time for everybody to cross the bridge. the pioneers are also arriving and will add their boats to the mix.

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Report to HQ KG Hauser:

The bridge has been saaved form demolition and both riverbanks are secured. leading units are advancing along the road and encountering only little resistance. Strong enemy forces are suspected in the woody hills north and south overwatching the road.

The bulgarian and romanian companies are crossing the river in barges with the objective of taking the northern hill wehile the gebirgsjagerkompanie moves on the southern hill. The panzer forces provide coveringfire and attack any armored treat. So far only to enemy tanks have been spotted and destroyed but surely there is some mobile reserve somewhere.

We expect to advance on time. its not propabale that all the hills can be secured on this same day but at least they can be neutralised regarding theri overwatch position on the road.

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As the sun reached its highest point KG Hausers troops had stormed the hills. A small counterattack by russian light tanks had been easily destroyed and only the AAG behind the norther hill could put up some serious resistance. the rest was just overhelmed by the numbers of the infantry and the artillery barrages.

The Sturmpioniere suffered because there SMGs were not suited for this open country fight but once they closed in they made the enemy pay. One armored car and 2 flame tanks were lost to russian guns in the final stage of storming the hills. Luckily the crew of the armored car escaped unharmed the flametank crews were not so lucky...

Otherwise causalities were low with only one dead and a few injured.

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Our next objective is a major industrial city. The Russians fortified the town heavily, including minefields, dug-in tanks and a huge anti tanks trench. We are tasked with leading the northern shoulder of the attack.