German Campaign using War Cab

[Imp]

Interim report
There are many other screens we can look at from kills & losses to increase in cost of units due to experience gain. For now we will stick to looking at Core experience gain.
Unsurprisingly the Stug with 21 kills was the biggest winner gaining 13 experience.
Several MkIVs gained 12 exp one is the most exp unit at 93 with several in the high 80s.

Heavy losses mean average & worst exp units remain virtually identical due to the replacements.
However we got a bigger jump in veterans than I thought we might another 10%
On reflection the ones that survived were the ones that were in the thick of the action so they got big exp gains.
Quite a few double figure drops in exp where units were replaced offset things.

[Imp]

British again - Map & Vhexes as came however visibility came out as 1 so I rolled 2 die, result 3-2 so set to 28 hexes.
Support units
3 SdKfz 222 armoured cars
3 Opel trucks for transport
1 10.5cm battery it has smoke unlike my 17cm

Forgot to mention Co A+B's HMG are doubles - Pz Gren's MMG are singles as expect to use at closer range so size zero preferable.
Also small crew size makes it easier to scoop them up for a breakthrough into the rear.
3 of my arty units now have a call time of 1.2 not 2.2 so have some fast plots.

22 Turns till they start getting points for controlled VHexes

PLAN
Thought about the obvious North Road but looking at the map decided to take a leaf out of the AIs book & use the South Flank.
So long as it has no one deployed in bottom 2 hex rows initial approach should be unobserved.

Trying a feint in the North the force here is only to locate units unless the fighting is light.
SP mortars have smoke plotted - will move after fired. 222A/C will move in LOS in the hopes the AI directs arty this way as everyone else is trying to stay concealed.

Risking a fairly fast push down centre road to see if anyone is in the trees just before Hill 1 so I know if we are spotted. Opels are ferrying here.

So main attack is on the hills with flanking force hoping to engage from side & rear. Rest may attack hill one frontally or from the South depending on what unfolds.

Pictures shortly to clarify once we do a few turns

[Imp]

Turn 2 forgot to draw on British deploy line - its the hex row to the left of 222A/C path at the top.

First 2 turns are uneventful I do not think we have been seen yet, no shots fired.
My 17cm battery is Exp 74 & seems very good at CB already as hit a 25 pounder on first turn. Unfortunately it landed directly on top of 1 of my SP Mortars, first blood to the Brits its immobile & has lost its weapon.
One platoon on foot has had to go round the other barrage that fell.

Central force has spotted a Honey & by luck an ATG has a LOS on it, the other should to next turn, most arty is plotted.

We are not ready to kick things off yet, tanks are still moving to behind crest lines so they can pop up & fire, infantry has checked LOS for them.
Will see if we can locate some other units before we open up or at least be in position to see them when they do.

Would prefer the the ATG on the rough hex beside it that was its original destination but probably lose sight of the Honey.
15 Hex range so can take it out & hopefully return fire will give the tanks some targets.

Tried stitching screenshot together for overview of position at end of turn 2

[Imp]

Position at end turn 3 ready for the kick off or may delay 1 turn to get 2nd ATG on a rough hex & let my arty take effect.
British have fired smoke screen between top & mid forces.

TOP
Will just report when contact is made, as can see the Honey we know it saw the 222A/C just did not take the shot due to range.
Will they take the bait & drop artillery here?


CENTRE LOS hexes from 2nd ATG, HMG good fields of fire to though British smoke screen has obscured some of it.
may have contact in woods next go.


BOTTOM LOS from 222A/C
Units in bottom half of map have LOS to Hill 1 on this side of the tree line on it & about 2/3rds of Hill 2s top couple of elevations.
Tree line is low or low density in quite a few spots.
The ATG that went with flanking force will now proceed on foot to rough hex NE of it.

While think of it if get Brits next battle will probably reload to try & get the Yanks as like in RL they seem to have stayed in their disembarkation zone for to long.

[Imp]

End Turn 5
The brits did indeed fall for it & place arty along the road, however some fell on Centre road killing an Opel truck I had supposedly moved back to safety. Its okay fast push means its falling behind us.
No more CB fire by my batterie lucky first turn location.

TOP
Contact made that's one tough squad man down despite 7 units engaging inc the StuG & both A/C. One only moved one hex nearly 40% hit rate but just shrugged it off.
Oh well but those little A/C are usually pretty hard on the on infantry.
Centre
Honeys died to ATG one took 4 hits to succumb, no infantry fire from that area so will press on for front of hill 1 & that clump of Vhexes by the trees.

Destroyed a Mech squad in trees & took fire from another squad, StuG smoked deal with later priority is locating an ATG as its holding up the advance. Leading squad risked fast move should get eyes on next go.

We spotted an M10 3in tank destroyer unfortunately its 30 hexes away from the tanks so they moved onto hill so in LOS range next turn, received fire from ATG in AI turn. Arty should hit M10 & hopefully the ATG this turn.

If anyone is interested M10's were very dangerous especially if armed with 76mm or 17 pounders the speed & visibility due to the open top worked.
Germany had very limited artillery in the last few years of the war, could not manufacture the shells due to lack of resources.
Being open top was therefore not such a big issue & the extra visibility compared to tanks of the day paid dividends. In US hands I think they destroyed around the same amount of tanks as all the Sherman's.

BOTTOM
Now engaged squad routed note arty plot including smoke.

[Imp]

Sorry Centre screen for turn 5

[Imp]

Situation Turn 9 Start
Shocking couple of turns my brain must have gone to lunch the only reason I have not lost several tanks among other things is luck plain & simple.
The AI missed several decent accuracy shots, brain finally came back on line to save the situation but spent most of the turns reacting to the AI in a stupid fashion.
Wasted a lot of smoke that I will need for the ATG that are probably protecting the rear area.
LOSSES
A halftrack & immob another one with a silly move, drove 250/11 on top of Hill 2 by mistake - at least he spotted a Sherman before a Churchill I think killed him.
Drove a truck straight into enemy LOS - pioneers survived with 3 hits.
So many more cases of infantry taking losses due to silly moves.

NORTH
Resistance seems light pushing forward - there is enemy arty at far East of here.
3 squads engaged & trying to find a Bofors AA gun, 222A/C hiding in depression till StuG can deal with it.

CENTRE
There is a ATG just North of hill 1 its fairly close so tanks have had to pull South.
There are infantry on front face of the hill, probably should not have attacked here till could come at from side as now need arty to tip the balance.
There are not many rough hexes but the AI has made good use of them its units are on them making life harder.
Finally killed the ATG but infantry took quite a few hits doing so, turns out screened by 3 or 4 squads.

There is another one here just SE of the M10 making attacking the M10 difficult, they have fields of fire to flanking force.
Calling in smoke my arty batterie somehow missed the M10 completely to make things worse, most in fact was errant & missed there targets.

Force on rear hills is advancing, another 2 hexes visibility & they might have been useful there. Luckily the tanks did place smoke to screen before entering the depression or they might have been siting ducks.

As said 250/11 located a group of tanks the hard way in SE map area, one spotted.
Need a plan probably engage them from hill 1 with long shots then finish from hill 2. Will need smoke to cover from whatever else lurks in the depression behind hill 1.

I have lots of decent tanks effectively a Pz Kompanie 17 tank formation with 6 upgraded to StuG's & they all carry smoke. No mediocre tanks I should be using them better the AI probably has about the same number as its a delay.
Hopefully we will make better progress & clear the immediate area in the next few turns.

[Imp]

Okay last effort obviously threw me this is turn 9 sorry.
Trying to use same colours in pictures - purple LOS/target - red move - blue ATGs etc - triangle low density unit - solid triangle specific unit.

I will be relocating my arty over the next few turns as will need to target hexes out of range shortly. 17cm covering for as has not CB fired since first turn. Also as no planes have turned up half the AA units have gone forward to give fire support.
Considering moving FOO later to Hill 2 but the AI is very good with its arty this battle, its hitting where I am not where I was. Only just started moving AT guns forward because of it.

We have not suffered any major losses but infantry have taken a few hard hits 4 half strength squads & arty has damaged a few halftracks, 3 units lost.
British losses to date - 2 Honeys - 3M10s - 1 ATG - 6 infantry units & their FOO last turn.
Hope arty will become rest accurate now he is dead.

NORTH

Killed 1 of the original squads, the other 2 are running, discovered another 3 near the road.
On rough again & they hit hard killed 4 men despite discovering squad moving slow.
Where are the others - normally come in platoon's of 4?

For the moment we will ignore them 1 platoon needs to get in front of StuG's to search for guns, once dealt with we will swing round & attack them from rear. Other platoon will support from purple area to bring overwhelming force then.
Forgot to mark hidden sniper 6 hexes in front of StuG
Sending an AA unit to support but no artillery support unless we run into heavier resistance.


SOUTH

Supporting fire from tanks & AA has broken the defences on Hill 1, not found that ATG yet however.
Hopefully we will be able to swing up & round to attack the area with 4 Vhexes from 2 angles.

Fighting in the area to either side of the road has been fairly intense, cannot dislodge that squad on the rough hex despite Sturmpanzer putting a few rounds his way.

Taking out M10s proved difficult (smoke had not fallen need to avoid hidden ATG)
Other Sturmpanzer drew fire as decent armour revealing a second M10 in the trees.
Not ideal 4 against 2 & I need to short move, somehow my 10.5cm battery missed them both - plotted right on it.
Every single hit on both sides bounced damn, committed now so pioneer takes position checks LOS & smokes a hex to protect from a side shot from Churchill & StuG moves up, takes all shots to kill 1 so fires dischargers.

Have several units with high hit chance targeting decided not to smoke & fired the 222A/C for good measure. It only fired once missed & our oppfire bounced again!!

Smoke fell pretty well need to take out the ATG & time to get in position to attack Churchill & friends.

[Imp]

Update
In the North StuG & a 222 teamed up & dispatched the sniper.
222 went on to discover the 4th squad, unfortunately that lead to it being on the receiving end of a rifle grenade.

M10 finally succumbed to the onslaught & we found the top ATG slightly further East than I thought. Its not going down without a fight & has killed several men.

Central road is being targeted by arty hampering movement, expect it to stop now but bet it targets the area we want to attack Churchill's from.
He has 3 friends 2 Sherman's & another Churchill, one found by a squad the other by a MKIV that fired dischargers & is OK.

Should take our first VHexes next turn & hopefully find the other ATG.

[Imp]

Turn 11 start
We have been killing infantry on the approach to Hill 1 & routing from the battle for the road, also got the ATG.
Arty must have got the other ATG or routed it I am right on top of it, no sign of the gun though if crew abandoned.
Did not think it was so many but War Cab now lists 22 kills for 4 losses.
My arty is back online this turn so going back to CB fire - Expect some British arty to hit my locations but most should still be replotting.

NORTH

Found the Bofors & a Patrol (under mouse pointer) forward StuG shares dead 222A/C hex

SOUTH

Attack against area A is going well a platoon of Pz Grenadiers is heading for the hill top from the SW.

We are poised to kick off attack on the group of tanks, 10.5cm placed smoke & will move to hit that infantry line.
Fine tune this turn but expect most smoke to disperse probably in the AIs turn allowing LOS from Hill 1. StuG's have dischargers off & should be safe at that distance if they take fire.

Hill 1 will kick things off on the next turn & perhaps cause some damage.
The group on Hill 2 will then go for the kill shots if dischargers do not mess things up. They are bound to hoping to get 2 of them, 3 if lucky.

Furthest South ATG is in kill range arty delayed the others but they can add suppression if needed or get lucky if someone runs.

Schedule is not bad forgot advance not assault VHexes are already giving Brits a few points.
They own 17 so by my reckoning are now getting 78 points a turn more than me. Germans -24, Brits -102