Turn 23 This battle is just bonkers should have called it the engagement from hell instead of barrage which is moderate & I am trying to pick paths through it.
With that great thing called hindsight deploying either side of the main approach was a good call, if only I had placed those mines things would have been far easier.
I deployed to many units in the South however & should have placed a few transport units in the area behind the bridge so my tanks could move up into the emplacements under smoke.
Got some respect for the MkIV's they have proved surprisingly resilient to mid/long range attacks. If this was later & the Brits had APDS most would be toast by now.
Calling StuG's tanks, I have 9 in the North
1 is immobile - 3 cannot move & fire - 1 only has 2 shots - 1 has lost its gun - 1 has 3 AP rounds left so 2 are in good order.
The 4 tanks supporting from the South have faired better 2 have light damage but are mission capable.
The scary thing is most are hanging in the breeze as is the remaining infantry there as we had to leave safety to intercept the British drive.
Most of the infantry here were tasked with finding positions with LOS that the tanks could move to, been a
major headache trying to find them.
A few infantry there have other tasks - squad & AT team are going up against a Churchill - squad & sniper are going on a recce mission. That focused on stopping tanks forgot about the infantry want to see what I am up against.
Arty will need to pause & reload before targeting them as the only way to win the tank battle was to throw everything at them.
My 15cm infantry guns are the only ones with a healthy ammo supply, they have not been targeted at all by the barrage - 17cm is out of ammo.
Pretty sure my arty killed 2 tanks think what happens if theirs hit my damaged ones while they are in the open, Sayonara Baby.
Which begs the question how exactly do I stop the infantry?
Managed to stop most of the Brits you can see the kill zone quite clearly however smoke dischargers messed thing up & 2 made it to the victory hexes.
I cannot see the lead tank because of this, think its undamaged but retreating please please run. Ha just checked I have lost LOS to the one on the bridge as well things just get better & better.
Its worse unless things clear I now only have 2 tanks with a LOS to the bridge approach - a 1 shot tank has LOS to the hex before the bridge & a lightly damaged one can target the road hex right of it. I am not stressed honest please let the tanks I can see be it.
Situation with & without smoke
The immobile StuG still lives the Churchill went elsewhere, the supporting one will have to pull out again because of artillery fire.
One of my 15cm infantry guns is supporting them & is the only piece that was not directed at the main force - couple of MG are helping to. Its tied up 6 squads for a good while now but its day is done the ammo bins will be dry next turn.
Strongly considered pulling the fairly intact Pz Gren & his halftrack out to try & slip round the back through the woods & get some eyes on things.
Decided 6 against 2 with MMG support they will duke it out to the end & tie those squads up, do not think the Brits will task armour here.
Down South the SPgun is dead - forgot till I looked it has an unarmoured rear so just fired squad weapons there for an easy kill.
Turns out there were 3 Honeys one still lives
The 2 squads that went for a look have moved fairly far East, bit tricky avoiding Honeys line of sight but they report no contact.
High confidence the battle for these VHexes is nearly over so we are pulling units as the artillery allows leaving a small attending force.
One ATG made a high risk trip & hopefully will move to take up position covering the bridge area next go.
Trip was to risky arty just missed it so the rest will take the long route all the way round the back of the map to avoid it when they can move out.
Remaining arty transport is heading over to ferry them as I have little transport here.
Need more infantry in the North for eyes not just armour.
This is going to take a fair while, considered charging forward & round as of course its an arty free zone plus a punch to the rear but then I will probably run into AAA/ATG guns.
This is an insanely hard battle so much for remaining dug in, way to much can go wrong for my liking.
If we can get the Brits away from the VHexes I would expect then to throw in the towel but it will only take 1 size zero unit slipping through to prevent that leading to another 20 turns of hell.
Re: German Campaign using War Cab
Linear Mode
