valos german adventure

[valo2000]

After some movement along the roads into greece with i only minor greek harassment attacks and village clearing were we supported a Fallschirmjaeger+stug platoon we arrived at the metsovon plains.

the italians wanted to make a move and it was my job to make sure they wouldnt fail. My troops were mainly used to guard the italians northern flank while they smahed a britih recon group and advanced along the asphaltroad routing some unsupported infantry platoons in the process.

meanwhile the brits tried a cavalrycharge with some cruisertanks and were surprised by one of their 2pounders that is now in my use. Fldwbl Albert got 3 more kill rings on his gun.

the italian airforce provided cas and was able to immobilize a matilda tank that was later taken out by a tellermine from the bulgarian platoon now under my command.

As can be seen on the map the english succeded in getting completly surrounded and in the end after turn 29/40 they surrendered. we had one wounded anthe italians lost 4 men in their little tankettes to inglis aa guns.

there were also some shrapnel wounds from english mortar and 25 pounder fire.

the british losses were much higher with 125 dead 300 wounded and 300 taken prisoners.

[valo2000]

After the english were destroyed we moved further through the plains were we met a nz delaying attack that had us occupied long enough that the rest of the enemy could escape.

one major cause for this was the bad terrain and the high quality of the anzac troops.

due to lack of armoured support my positions were never endangered of beeing overrun.all in all pretty boring most of the time was spent firing mgs.

because the number of unit under 1st kompanies command is getting high i have formed a new kompanie led by a stug iiia a pretty useless piece of equipment. an mg would surely help them.

[valo2000]

the rest of mai was spent fighting the remants of the greek army who had 3 cruisers in every single battle.

in one of thoose battles the last surviving cruiser moved up and took out one of the poilsh tanks led by oberleutnant podolski. the tank was completely destroyed and podolski died on from his wounds on the way to the lazarett. his crew survived bud was badly injured and is on home leave.

after finishing our mission in greece we are tomtake part in army group centres attack on russia.
After the balkanfeldzug i managed to get my hands on one of the italian longrange mortars (is this correct pr an oob mistake?). As replacement for podoslki feldwebel zahn in his brand new pz 3h arrived and he iss an elite commander thenks to a bug in the game (if you change a destroyed unit it still has good xp from the crew thart has become causalities). the 2nd Kompanie has been reeinforced by romanian infantry platoon. this kompanie will soon rreceive a hungarian part as well to complete its three infantry platoons as i have heard. Also on the way is one mountain gun i took as trophy in greece.

our job in russia is to stop a breakeoutattempt from the kessel of byelovatsomething. support consists of 2 stukas and 3 mobile 5cm paks.
wnd kompanie will hold our part of the road and 1st kompanie will attack at the northern flank.

btw imho the game can be played with tanks and scouts alone i am not very well at infantry command because the enemy is always superior in numbers.


A kessel has been produced and some russians are trying to break out

[valo2000]

after a series of skirmishes and the surrender of the russians in the kessel we moved on into ukraine. it was our job to secure a railway bridge in this area and what looked like an easy job became a heavy fight.

the area around the bridge was full of russians and at least a company of russian tanks attacked us.in the shortrange firefights with a few t-50 tanks our 3h was beadly damged receiving 2 hits to the turret.It had to retreat ot of the battlefield. a few minuits later the stug3a of second company received a catastrophic hit as it ran into a t26.

we are now down to one polish tank and 2 mg carriers in the armor part......

in the meantime 2nd kompanie was able to cross the river and is approaching the railwaybridge.

[valo2000]

the battle ended with a total rout for the russians and 2nd kompanie arrived in their back to shoot retreating units. Seeing this the russians surredered.

all battles against the russians follow the same pattern tanks rush forward and pose a danger if i dont hae at support bcause my anti-tank assets are to weak. after they are taken out i have to reduce the russian inf horde that is slowly and bulky moving around while dodging his aty.I try to show him my tanks for 2 rounds and then move them sometimes this triggers aty bombardment. meanwhile my two snipers are runnig around searching for his aty (iam playing a 100x100 map and they are able to sneak through pretty easy).
My infantry is pretty useless and sneaks around most of the time following the snipers into the backyard but they can get massacred by aamgs pretty easily.
the mgs are of some use moving down the russaian inf masses and pinning them for my mortars.this part of the battle is pretty boring and most of my losses occur here because i move my inf to fast.
i really need to find some use for my inf against enemy inf.
they are pretty good at taking out russian tanks in the woods, especially pioneers with flamethrowers but the rest of the mission is won by mgs,tanks and aty.

as i need some at power i tried to capture a russian 76,2mm gun. and my sniper had taken out the crew of one but we were unable to secure it in the next encounter 2nd kompanie will try to capture one of these formodableguns intact for thir at-platoon.

[valo2000]

i restarted because somehow i didnt like to continue withthis core. so i started again with a small core and iam now in greece with 2 platoons 1 mortar and one at-gun. So i will learn to use infantry tactics. One thing i have to remember is to concentrate my forces to achieve firepower superiority as i forgot this often.
the last battle was a meetong engagement where ic was able to lure the brits into a cauldron and destroyed them. Feels nice when a plan works instead of endless machinegunnig enemy inf with my tanks.

i have learnend that airplanes in small scale scenarios suck beacuse they give the ai a whole extra infatry company to purchase and the planes cant compensate this.

i am thinking again of playing 200x200maps very time because it fells moore realistic and there is alot more room for maneuver. problem is the game gets boring on such a huge map very fast because there is m,uch running around and only little fighting.

my infanttry skils have increased. now i use one or two platoons for surpressive fire and the third closes with the enmy works good in open terrain and minimzes losses even if there still are some risks andf i dont like taking causalities especially to my core.

now iam delaying a uk counteraatack in greece and so far everthign works ok. a uk inf company is attacking along a dirt road and gets hammered by mortars into retreat. there are huge areas of woodland that are defended by gebrirgsjaegers and a bulgarian platoon(with stretcher bearers attached an inf that carries 4)an i have been able to take some carriers cruisers and AC here. a village is defended by my crack platoon that has been under my command since poland. We willsee what happens whe enemy inf closses in i plan a series of ambushes with retreats in the forests and maybe a defense in the village if i wont get pounded by aty to much.

there is also a hill that is ruled by a 5cm gun and 2 mgs an unbeatable combo as long as they are not spotted for aty fire.

[valo2000]

here is a map of the battle. the difficult terrain made the english attack very slow and they send in wave after wave into the city were they were attcked by a 3 unit stack that didnt get return fire the whole scenario. somehow the ai missed to shell my platoon in the village. he was to busy bombarding my mortars on rough ground and managed to route one of them at the end of the battle.

my core mortar squad abadoned its equipment and watched the shells fall on their mortar position then they went back and started firing again.

[valo2000]

the next battle is a meeting engagement with the uk.

deployment

the terrain is split up in 2 parts by huge woods. i plan to fight on the roads. in the north one infantry will perfurm ambushes in the group of houses at the road. the bulgarian squal will gurad its right flank and the mgs will guard the lef with the VH.In the south the italians will take up positions along the ridge were they are well sheltered against enemy fire.

they have 2 47mm AT-guns with them. I have to be there faster then the englishmen maybe some mortarfire along the road will slow them down.

the hill on the middle is guarded by 4 pzIV and 3 Pzgrenadieres. they will be my reserve and counterattack force to take all the objectives when the ai has spent its forces.

I am starting to split my forces again that is probably a bad idea because i have little manpower in the north that might be a problem.

turn 1
preplotted mortars fall om booth roads.At-guns are driven to their destinations.italians move forward.

turn2
Mortars fall italians move forward no enemy spotted yet.

turn 3
mortars fall. i see a crew exits map message, i hit something .Italians continue to move to their positions.

turn4
in the south some light tanks and a cruiser are spotted. i take 2 shots with one AT but they miss and the cruiser makes a smoke screen. that was a bit impatient i wanted to wait for close range engagements. nothing in the north yet.

turn 5
Mortars fall.a lt tank takes the flag in the southern road and disapears.i dont know where he is but he is not a great problem.i send an at to recapture the road.one cruiser is hit by the fourth shoot of my AT i dont know if this gun is spotted.

turn 6
the english tanks capture a vh in the woods they are fast.
no enemy spotted. where is his infantry? maybe my mortars are effective?

turn 7
the road is recaptured a cruiser tank is potted but can not be attacked by at forces.I send a HT to take the southwestern roadobj.
1 1/2 italian platoon goes to recapture the wood VH i dont expect englishmen there so no prepmortarfire.

turn 8
the platoon in the wood encounter the missing lt tk and immobilize it after some panicking and rallying then they proceed with throwing nades against it and shooting their rifles while hollering to indimitade the crew inside.
Another lt tk is 100m north of them and might give unpleasent company the next turn. Another cruiser comes out of the wood to take back the road and is attacked by my at that misses the cruiser uses his smoke. My AT rifles at the roads walk slowly forward spotting the first infantry in the woods north of the dirt road.My mortars continue to pound the roads.
All quiet in the north.Maybe i should make a move there.

turn 9
my italians in the woods get machinegunned by the rifle squad from 600 m away and the second lt tank.My at gund destroyes one lt tk and and immobilzes a cruiser. my at rifles march along the road encountering no englishmen.
i move my reserve to the south and one HT to the north to look what is going on in the north.

turn 10
i take some shots with an AT rifle at the last lt tank in the south but they miss and have to cover their retreat with smoke.This Lt tk is directly in the back of my positions on the rough ridge if he moves he will be dead.the italians in the wood now with 5 men less rally and move again to the VH.
finnaly i see some activity in the north a vh is taken. i plot my mortars between this vh and the next VH on the northern road. my at rifles/scouts move forward on the southern road an see a pinned crew that has an aty plotted directly on top of it.

turn 11/12
i bomb his immobilised tank that had been driven into a house to little effect. my italians on the ridge get bombed heavily by 3inch mortars (3) and they retreat en masse.i can see one mortar but i dont have the resources for CB fire atm.i send my at rifles to take out a immobilzed cruiser that has overwatch on the dirt road so my panzer 4 can advance.

turn 13

my HT that tired to get into the british rear meats a matilda !!!! he shoots but misses and my HT runs into the woods north of the road.another VH on the northern road is captured and i plot aty there.In the south the italians are bombarded again and they dont like it. my panzer 4 attack a single rifle squad on the dirt road helping out a troubled AT rifle team there.I plot 2 of my Mortars for CB fire.

turn 14
my forward AT-rifles are taken out by british rifles.the Pz 4 take out 3 of them as retaliation. i am now don do one ATsquad . I needed them to take out the immobilised Cruisers.My HT runs through the woods and might get to the rear where he will be met by AD guns as usual.So it might be better to use that mobile mg on the defense...

turn 15-17
one immobilized tank is taken out and CB fire is switched to another smokefield that might indicate morter positions.the HT is lost to a Matilda lurking in the woods. these Matildas will be a problem...

turn 17-20
i start a counterattack in the south and meet only little resistance because the british infantry concentrates on the VH in the woods were my Italians have some Succes even if they have much less experience and morale then the english.
the english mortars plotted on them fall on their own troops.
In the north things get hotter as my sniper repulses some infantry moving along the road. so i can hit them with my mortars. then he retreats

turn 20-23
along the northern road uk infantry attacks and is machineguned and bombarded. a matida crawls nearer.
in the south i can advance along the road against minimal opposition i saw 2 crew exits map messages maybe CB fire was succesful.

turn 24
the english are coming out of the woods and try to recapture the dirt road. they are greeted by 2 italain inf platoons and a panzer. in the nort i loose a man to a FOO team that sneaked forward argh. the kill zone there functions well and iam reluxtant to retreat to covered positions that might cost me later as my men are spotted now. there is at least one 3 inch mortar left the other two are destroyed or abdoned i hope.

turn 24-27
the mortars make a comeback and shell the italians. i see a possible site and order CB fire. on the souther front the uk infantry makes banzaichrages aganst my tanks and manges to take one out .the last AT rifle team is lost and thr itlains advance routing some english infantry that moves out of the woods.in the north the matilda moves into the little "village" and my pioneers take it out.i expect at least another one.

[valo2000]

turn 28-31
the south is a rout for the english my panzer 4s have taken out the hmgsquads(feels a bit unrealistic the last thing you see of the infantrycompany is always the hmgs with their size 0).In the north things get interesting with the second matilda showing its ugly face. i ahve to setup an ambuish for him because he is moving at my mg postion on the northern hill.

turn 32-36
i move towards the crossroads in the south and i might just get them. the italians in the woods hold there VH by ambushing any infantry that moves with 6 sections all packet in one woodhex.the remaoning english infantry is taken prisoner as they move out of the wood one by one.
in the north my A0(a pioneer) assaults the matilda as it tries to take the hill. A few inafntry units appear here an then and are shoot into retreat. the battle seems to be over and there are only 2 turns to go. if i can grab the crossroads a marginal victory is possible.

the end

the english forces are destroyed 326:26 causalities a rate of more then 1 to 10. A marginal victory is achieved. I tried to get one matilda ofr my men but it was totaly burned.Maybe there will be another chance.

now onto the amysomething plains for another meating with the forces of the united kingdom

[valo2000]

the meeting is going bad so far the english have andvanced to slow and my paradrop into their aty was a slaughter for my men . at least thoose wont have to go to crete. the remainin inf kp- and my core are not part of the action so far.