German Campaign using War Cab

[Imp]

Hill 3

Similar start to this one a couple of Humbers & Dingos got there just before me. 250/11 Halftrack made a short move to ambush as they came over the crest & 2 of my tanks took up position. The 250/11 got one & the others ran into my tanks sights.

Forgot there was a small clump of trees here to on my end of the hilltop, 250/11 took up position behind them & the Pz Grenadiers headed out for a looksee. This time some of my tanks had reached the crest just a 1 hex move to the hilltop.

Next turn 2 honeys & 3 Cromwell's turned up & took pot shots at the Grenadiers. The 250 could move 1 hex to line up a Honey while screened from the rest so it did & knocked it out with the first shot. Now I got overconfident Grenadier placed smoke so it could take on a Cromwell by moving another hex, it fired wide of the mark, we fired - no effect.
Another stray round comes our way so risk another shot its damaged, unfortunately its superficial & the return fire kills me.
Still that's 2 tanks that wont fire at me as I come over the rise. Grenadier places smoke blocking one of the tanks view & we come over the lip & kill the 4 we can target then stop. It died next turn when it moved as did another couple of Honeys that turned up.
There then followed a battle with quite a few infantry trying to take the high ground. I remember thinking that's more than the tanks could have dropped.
A squad & MG drove over to hill 2 to get a better angle on them & zipped round the VHexes at the same time.
The infantry were contained I now had free armour & a few halftracks in support though had to be careful not to expose them as we had Churchills inbound.
These were spotted earlier from hill 1 & keep dipping in & out of view so its time for the StuG's to do their thing 3 move out including 1 from hill 1 with an infantry escort. Trip to firing positions is fairly uneventful, one got shot at by a Piat team which was quickly killed by the escorting infantry. Did not engage odd infantry encountered let the HMG pin them or smoked till we were in position.
The British 2 Pounder does not have APCR yet so the StuG's have a sweet spot & opened up at 20-24 hex range as they are safe from return fire unlike the MkIV.
W fire the MG a couple of times then let fly the APCR seems the best way. Saves ammo & rarely triggers the dischargers just before you get that accurate shot.
When the last one died around turn 14 the Brits threw in the towel, I was quite surprised how much infantry was advancing on hill 3 that I had not detected yet. None could get near the VHexes however due to the tanks & MGs defending them.
That is why I changed map size battle was easy partly because the AI never got all its units to participate.
Will use War Cab a bit more this battle was my trial & I kept forgetting to save the data

Here's a War Cab end of battle screen & my losses screen. From that forgot my artillery got hit by the Brits the Maultier soft halftrack is my infantry gun transport simply because I have never used them before. plan to use some other untried equipment as we progress.

[Imp]

Before moving on to the battle that prompted this AAR a quick note on War Cab now I grasp it more.
I can use full intel so long as restrict myself to the opponents kill tab - this lets me check what they killed/damaged that turn.
This is because losses are a running total not per turn like kills as once a unit is dead its dead every turn.

This does mean it reports enemy force size as in men formations which does not give anything away in my view, scared the $#@% out of me though!
Also gives their readiness status which gives a bit away on how I am doing but fine with it. I have asked Erik who is very helpful to confirm readiness is based on - units destroyed plus suppressed state of current units.

[Imp]

War Cab reports Map width x height so 90 wide 70 deep not so sunny today though soon visibility was 0

How many men!

MISSION DEPLOYMENT
We are tasked with holding the bridge & stopping the advance, in the bottom of the map I added fords to every other hex along the stream to aid the AI crossing, nothing got stuck.

Purposely deployed light on expected main avenue of approach & behind the bridge as expected heavy bombardment, was right just did not think big enough. They were supposed to be supported by units on the elevations to each side but due to the level of dust this never happened till turn 8. North Flank purposely deployed heavy & with halftracks to act as a reaction force.
Shot myself in the foot bought mines to place in front of the bridge then decided that was to much & was going to place a few to screen squads but forgot.

RECAP
We are currently on turn 13 so some screenshots - smoke off its light
Thought I had a deployment save but no.
3 most forward squads & a sniper have perished Company A who were tasked with holding here could well lose 2 complete platoons so things are not going so well this time.

2 StuG's & a platoon of Pz Gren (1 dead) are behind a broken tree line by my mouse cursor at the bottom of the picture.
Top tank attack swung in after meeting resistance - infantry may be following?
The AI formed up truck infantry & tanks here before following the first push by SPGuns & infantry after it eased the front edge of the bombardment which stopped completely on turn 11


Bottom attack was lead by a probe with SPguns one however decided to stop so I sent a squad to find it. My SPmortars & HQ were camped on the flank to avoid the barrage which they did but I had to pull them out.
Company B has had a quite time only one squad has engaged taking out a tank with its AT mine on the second attempt. Tanks & AT teams have engaged the armour attack which has only just commenced.


My squads on the main approach fought valiantly I could not have asked more of them but once the tanks turned up & they ran out of smoke they were overwhelmed.
They received virtually no supporting fire till turn 9 because of the blanket of dust, turn 11 before could really help much. They managed to stall the first push but now the tanks have turned up the AI is moving forward.
I missed an opportunity to place fire missions on the form up area, partly because my arty was only firing every other turn in an effort not to give away their positions. When I did place it missed anyway as the AI remained in place.
Arty is now going full bore as I think positions are known 2 Spitfires made a run around turn 6. Both were hit one downed but not before overflying my artillery park.
We will take up the action next post but I think I made a bad call leaving my arty battery on CB fire. That's habit thought fire missions were to dangerous but I bought 17cm it can do them.
Should have used it to stall the infantry & perhaps damage some armour to give my squads some relief.

[Imp]

Forgot bought 2 ammo dumps & 2 bunkers as support.
1 ammo dump & a bunker were destroyed by the barrage in the first few turns. The other bunker is heavily damaged can only fire one shot a turn & so far has fired twice for no effect.

[Imp]

Position at start of turn 15

Lost contact with my offboard battery so only plotting this turn.
Only 4 or so British batteries opened up on turns 13-14 (now 12) so decided to throw caution to the wind & risk moving a few units.
Mobhack surmised I think correctly that most are general support so long call times.

Really fretted over the underlined units considered pulling them out but I need kills the Brits still have more armour than me. Be a shame to lose them StuG now has 12 kills taking out 3 last turn, the MkIV damaged 2. If the other StuG digs in in time I may be able to pull them out.

StuG advanced to take position to cover the advance & hopefully dig in before the arty starts.
MKIV pulled out heavily damaged its fight is over

Halftrack has tanks inbound so retreated.
The StuG managed a probe killing 2 tanks but now not sure what to do with it as the artillery is inbound. Head for the stream & hope no arty or risk trying to dig in.
AI did a nice combined arms move sending that squad in, if there are more we could be in trouble here all the units I have there are in the screen shot.
Reaction force is looking less & less likely as 2 of the 6 armour units are heavily damaged. The one that pulled out confirmed it cannot shoot if it moves at all.

Down South its been fairly quite which is a worry I think all hell is about to break out, is the AI forming up again?
Pretty confident I can stop this attack with minor losses though so only 1 8cm Mortar is supporting here hoping to lay some suppression.

One of my artillery crew is making a valiant attempt to return to his tubes. I have a horrible feeling I have signed his death warrant & he wont make it in time.

Over turns 13+14 the AI gained little ground & we managed to kill a further 14 units for 2 losses ourselves.
Kill ratio is just over 4:1 in our favour but the AI still outnumber us by 4:1 in terms of men. The AI losses are evenly split between infantry & armour, 31+32 26 of which are tanks. We have managed not to lose any tanks yet though 2 are effectively out of action.
More confident of containing them now when the barrage restarts they probably will have to stop advancing. Only issue is if they can make a run for the VHexes.