Long Campaign - German - Abrevated AAR

[dlazov]

I selected to do a long campaign starting in 7/43 as the Germans. With a default map size of 50x50 and enough points to buy 1 German Infantry Rifle Company and one platoon of Panzer IVg. With the main interest to stay in Russia for the war.

During the first battle, which was a defend versus Soviet Assault one of my infantry platoons that was deployed in the south was decimated in whole by a horde of Soviet T-34s and SMG squads. One platoon up north survived and did not see any action. The center platoon, survived with a few kills and the 5 panzer IV g made it through literally unscathed with several kills each. I received a MV. And enough points to upgrade 2 of the Panzers to Tigers.

During the second battle which was an assault. I charged strait through the middle line took a small knoll with the tanks and infantry, then swung north and took the northern VH. What worked well for this assault mission was I had a ton of support points and I purchased 3 modules of 170mm Artillery and 2 of 105mm Artillery and two mech recon platoons. The artillery pretty much shook the Russians to the core. I lost both Mech Recon units but I got a DV this time and changed all Panzer IV g to Tigers and even bought a Panther Platoon.

During the third battle, (again still at the Kursk sector) I received order to meet to contact. I purchased a mech recon force and I sent this unit with the newly arrived Panthers due south and through a stream, one Panther got stuck, one got knocked out and one was immobilized by fire. The LT in charge did score 8 kills in his first action! The mech recon platoon got annihilated. The infantry got a little beat up, but the really winners were the glorious Tiger Platoon. The LT for this platoon really shown, at the end of the day he alone had knocked out 15 Soviet tanks and lost his own tank as well (heart raced as his tank took 5 direct hits before brewing up, but all of his crew escaped!). His wingman had 18 kills and the others to a lesser degree. In all I lost 4 of the 5 Tigers, but all the crews lived. I got another DV, and HQ sent me on a special mission.

Battle 4 was by far the toughest. Surprisingly HQ did not fix all my tigers, 3 were Immobilized and two were movable. The panthers were all fixed, but my infantry was really shot up. It was a defensive mission, so I spent over 2 hours finding the best spots for my units. I had limited support points, and fearing an air attack I added to my core 2 x 20mm AA and bought 2 x 37mm AA guns. I also bought some mortars and 105's. This battle last 35 turns! It was totally insane. I only lost both newly bought (to my core forces) 20 mm AA and (due to about 10 x T-60's and their 20mm guns) One panther was immobilized by (as I feared) a Il-2. The 37mm AA did manage to shoot one down. And I lost one (he had 12 kills) Panther to a well placed KV-1 round. That Tiger leader, he now has 30 kills to himself. The Panther platoon is doing really well too. Most Panthers have a very high kill ration as well. This battle field had a stream running N-S and the Soviets just kept comming. Now remember 3 of my Tigers were imobilized and were just sitting there not getting much kills, but getting hammered by T-34's, KV-1's and those damn planes. I thought all 3 would go, but they managed to live through the hail of fire. The Panthers launched a counter-attack in the south and wiped out 1 light Tank Company, 2 Medium T-34 companies and 1 heave KV-1 platoon and scores of unsupported infantry. The Tigers with the help of The infantry staved off attack after attack. The KG leader took a direct hit by 120mm mortar and drop to two men (Col Voss and his ADC), but we survived. The infantry is that has survived is back together now with fresh troops and and the Tigers and Panthers are all repaired ans HQ due to another DV in my pocket railed my unit up as a Fire Brigade unit to more battles ahead.

Breakdown of kills so far:

Tiger G0 = 30 Kills
Tiger G1 = 18 Kills
Tiger G2 = 07 Kills
Tiger G3 = 12 Kills
Tiger G4 = 05 Kills
-------- - -- -----
Totals 72 Kills

Panther I0 = 15 Kills
Panther I1 = 20 Kills
Panther I2 = 00 Kills (died, the original had 12)
Panther I3 = 06 Kills
Panther I4 = 24 Kills
---------- - -- -----
Totals 67 Kills

Grand Tank Total Kills: 139

MG42 (x2) squad has 6 kills with elite status.

Battle 5, HQ has sent me to Voloshilgrav (or some such) for another meeting engagement with the Russians.

I can report on this if there is an interest. So far this is the fun-ist campaign I have had yet.

Don

[dlazov]

Infantry Company with Tiger and Panthers

Battle 5 August 1943.

Meeting engagement

All core units are fixed. Support points bought 10cm batterie, 8cm batterie, and 2 Fw 189 Uhu. Plan, general push center (Tigers) and south (Panthers). Turn 4, first contact. Obgfrtr Voss in Panther I4 scores the first kill (his 25th). Here we go. Turn 5, the Soviets are trying to out flank me in the south, I guessed correctly and that is where I sent my Panthers. Voss killed another T-34 and Hpt. Osterloh scored his 21st (in Panther I1).

The Russians decided to strike north as well. Lucky I have my Tigers in the general area. Obrgfrtr Oertzen in G4 Tiger scored his 6th and 7th kills. Turn 7, Obrgfrtr Naumann (the newbie), scored his first kill. Sporadic fighting begins. Tiger G1 (Flwbl Langer scores his 19th kill. Turn 9, Fldwbl Bolhuis in Tiger G2 scored his 8th kill.

MG42 (x2) C2, Obrgfrtr Christmann, just gunned down and entire Russian SG43 MMG unit for his 7th kill! Fldwbl Wiegmann in Tiger G3 just lost his tank to a T34 100 meters away, luckily he and his crew bailed out (12 kills for him). Turn 10, the battle is starting to get a little disjointed. The Fw 189 Uhu's came on this turn. The first made it through the flak, but did no noticeable damage. The second one came on and got hit by 37 mm AA and took 8 damage points and went down in flames. Damn, Tiger G4 with 7 kills just got killed, no survivors! Inf-Grp D0 with Obrgfrtr Eberbach, may have saved the day, several of his infantry buddies try to suppress 3x T-34's, with mixed results. I screwed up and drove the Tiger leader G0 (Wiedemann with 30 kills) into the forest and got immobilized by a T-34 next to one of the three T-34's that were hidden. The infantry (2 squads, got suppressed) and one T-34 was immobilized by hand grenades. The Tiger shot and immobilized the 2nd T-34 and Eberbach close assaulted the other T-34 and killed it, and immobilized the 3rd T-34. Then the MG42 team fired at the immobilized T-34 to help suppress it (the one next to my immobilized Tiger) and got a lucky ricochet hit and killed the knocked out T-34's crew with one fell swoop. Well since that went well and I want to save my Tiger I sent in C0 (HQ of the Infantry Company) Hptmann Bertram to try a rescue attempt. He moved one hex into the thick woods and close assaulted the immobilized T-34 and killed it with no survivors! Now only a routed T-34 is left out of three.

Wunderbar Infantry Tank killers! They all shall receive an Iron Cross! Still a long way to go only on turn 11 of 40! Okay, turn 13, down to 2 Tigers. Lost the last Fw 189 Uha to 37mm AA again.

Damn it's turn 19 and on turn 17 I just lost MG 42 (x2) unit, they had 8 kills! So sad. Turn 20, hit the Russian nest egg, 3 x 37mm AA, and 2 x 120 mm mortars. My Panther Platoon has run into them.

Well that battle is over. DV again, but at a cost. Lost 1 Tiger and 1 MMG unit, irreplaceable, but such is life.

Great points for battle 6! I have received from HQ 1600 points. Tough decision. If I increase my core force I increase the enemies strength and my manageable assets.

However if I add say another rifle company and say a assault gun company or just a Tank company, there is some options...

Okay I folded and bought an Inf Kp (sw) with Panzerschrecks and one StuG Btr /10 to go with it and I upgraded my 2 x 20mm fixed AA units to Sdkf 251/17's. Now my force value is 3301, a bit higher then I wanted but. BTW, Panther I4 (Voss) is now my first Star (*) with 27 kills.

Here we go for battle 6 meeting engagement near Voroshilograv during the hot August of 1943.

Status:

Tigers
G0 - Kills 30
G1 - Kills 26
G2 - Kills 16
G3 - Kills 12
G4 - Kills 00
-------------
Totals = 84

Panthers
I0 - Kills 19
I1 - Kills 24
I2 - Kills 09
I3 - Kills 12
I4 - Kills 27
-------------
Totals = 91

Grand Total to date: 175 kills for the tanks alone.

Things are already heating up in Battle 6.

[dlazov]

Well so much for abbreviated.

Battle 6.

Meeting engagement. Three circular groups of VH. I put the Tigers in the North, the Panthers in the south and put a platoon of infantry on each. In the center I put the last platoon with the HQ units and the 2 x 251/17 AA tracks. I deployed the other Infantry company with 2 x platoon's in the south and one in the north, each backed up with there 3 x stug/g platoon. So that essentially makes the North route my weakest (one tiger platoon, one StuG platoon, and two infantry platoons). The South route has the panther platoon and two StuG platoons and three platoons of infantry. Leaving the centre with only one infantry platoon, but both the north and south can reinforce them if needed. The main reason for this deployment is the heavy woods in the center and the north but the north has an east-west road.

First contact on turn 3 and heavy contact by turn 6. Several StuG have one kill already and the Russians are coming on strong. The slightly heavy attack from the Soviets in the south has been repelled, but their 82mm have hit the exposed infantry causing a lot of pins. Have to move the vehicles out so there tracks don't get hit. Heavy attack from Russians in the north, but the Soviets have smarted up. They are avoiding my Tigers like the plague and going after the StuG and infantry, they are just across the tree line. The Tigers can't see them, but "global" I can see them 100 meters away. Learned from the past, don't get within 100 meters of T-34's if you can help it, that is what killed my last tiger.

Damn, O2 StuG just got destroy! He killed his first T-34 and another one destroyed him.

Getting into the thick of it now.

Well, the Soviets rushed in and grabbed all 21 VH while I was slowly advancing, but now it's costing him more then me. It's turn 10 of 29 so I feel my forces can take him.

Crescendo of battle proceeding normally.

Yeah, Voss (Panther I4) just got his 30th Kill he now joins the ranks of Wiedemann with 31 kills in Tiger G0. Langer (Tiger G1) just got his 30th kill. Of course next turn Langer lost his tank from a Su-76, but he bailed.

Well the rest of the battle was pretty much a mop up operation. Got another DV.

Repaired all units got another 1978 points to spend. Do I expand the core or not? Right now I am pretty happy, have one really experienced Rifle Company. One somewhat experienced Rifle company, 2 very experienced tank platoons, and one StuG batterie that is learning. I also have 2 x 251/17 AA tracks and the only two pieces left to add to my core forces would be a mech pioneer platoon and some organic mech mortars.

Okay I bought a Pionier Zug (gep) with the SturmPio(flam) and a PzAufklBt(sGrW) platoon with the 250/8 (75mm) and the 251/2 GrW mortars.

My total force value is 4005. Man I wanted to buy either a 14 tank company or a platoon of panthers. I still have 1525 left. Okay, I will be prudent and save my points for another day.

NOTE: Increased the map width to 100

Battle 7 Mission:
Delay
Voroshilovgrad 8/43

I now have the following forces for the next mission:

Units: 73
Formations 19

G0 Tiger - Kills 31
G1 Tiger - Kills 30
G2 Tiger - Kills 20
G3 Tiger - Kills 13
G4 Tiger - Kills 06
-------------------
Total Tiger Kills = 100

I0 Panther - Kills 21
I1 Panther - Kills 25
I2 Panther - Kills 11
I3 Panther - Kills 17
I4 Panther - Kills 31
---------------------
Total Panther Kills = 105

N0 StuG IIIg - Kills 1
O0 StuG IIIg - Kills 5
O1 StuG IIIg - Kills 5
O2 StuG IIIg - Kills 2
P0 StuG IIIg - Kills 2
P1 StuG IIIg - Kills 2
P2 StuG IIIg - Kills 2
Q0 StuG IIIg - Kills 1
Q1 StuG IIIg - Kills 4
Q2 StuG IIIg - Kills 0
----------------------
Total StuG Kills = 24

Grand Total Tank/AG Kills = 229
Total German Catastrophic loses 3 tanks, total lost tanks 10

[dlazov]

KG Gross Battle 7

Southern Russia, August 1943

Mission Delay.

Not the best place to try to delay, but I have my orders. I do have a strange feeling about this one. The VH are in groups again slanting diagonally with the terrain.

There is a east-west road in the north, a small crop of trees in the center where 2 of the VH's grouping is. and a wide open field in the south with the last group of VH's.

In the North I deployed my one experienced rifle company (Hpt. Bertram), with one rifle platoon (Kramer) behind the first VH grouping and then up a bit further I deployed in a
skirmish line the next rifle platoon (Ehrhardt) and then hidden in the adjacent the east-west northern road in some trees for ambush I placed the last rifle platoon (Krohner). Backing up this rifle company I deployed the Tiger platoon (Obrltnt Wiedemann - 31 kills) west of the skirmishing platoon and just a bit north of the first VH group spread out in small crop of trees I deployed Wisch's battery of StuG IIIg.

In the center I deployed the second rifle company (Hpt. Hollmichel) with one platoon (Karthaus) to the left and below of Kramer's platoon. I deployed Waldmuller's platoon adjacent to the center VH's, which is to the right and below Karthaus's platoon. And finally I deployed Witt's platoon again to the right and below of Waldmullers platoon so that they may cover not only the centers VH, but the further south VH's. Backing up this rifle company I deployed Major Stolze's StuG battery with one section (Scherrer) right behind Waldmuller's platoon and one section (Urbanitz) behind Witt's platoon.

Just south of Witt's and Urbanitz units hidden in some woods to protect the southern flank I deployed the Panthers of Osterloh's platoon.

In reserve I deployed in the central area hidden and loaded on the 251/1 half-tracks in the back end of the woods the pioneers of Frey's platoon.

Finally, I deployed my newly arrived mech mortars of Barnsdorf's platoon behind in the center by a small farm house and some woods. I have also cross-attached both tank platoons (earlier on Game 1) to Hpt. Bertram infantry company. I have also cross-attached the mech pioneers and the 2 mech flak units to Major Stolze's battery.

Also placed back here is the Artillery observer (Lt. Braun), and the KG commander Obrstlt Gross.

Plan is to hold the enemy for as long as possible.

Let the battle begin.

Okay, here we go, Russians launched some artillery, no damage.

First contact on turn 4 in the north on that road. So far Oblt. Wiedemann has knocked out 2 T-34/76 m42 in front of my ambush platoon (Krohner). The panthers have made contact in the south and knocked out 2 BA-64's.

Turn 7, begins with the StuG's from Urbanitz (Q0) engaging some more BA-64's and the north battle is proceeding as normal. Turn 9, things are getting really hot in the south! 4 x La-5N attacked my StuG platoon (Scherrer), they all survived! Massive T34's are everywhere, north, south center! Turn 10, well the last turn started to get hot, but now...Turns 10, 11 and 12, being attacked by a Cav/Mech unit. Inflicting lots of tank kills but they keep coming. Damn, just lost StuG IIIG Q2 no survivors. On turn 11 StuG Q1 got immobilized by 4 T-34's. On turn 12 I just lost Major Stolze in StuG IIIg (N0), no one made it out that tank alive! Turn 13, massive T-34's everywhere, my infantry got hit this time by the 4x La-5N and the Soviets have captured the southern VH (next to the Panthers).

Okay, I think I have the battle under control. Heavy Russian artillery attack in the center. I lost Panther I2 (Nauman) but his crew escaped! The center rifle company has been hit for turn turns by mortars, and are very suppressed. Turn 16 saw the La-5N attack my mortar tracks, one got immobilized and one got hit. The damn flak tracks can't hit [censored]. Urbanitz (StuG IIIg - Q0) is pretty pissed, snuck up a hex and blasted a retreating T-34m43 in the *** for his 8th kill. 122mm Arty really pins the German infantry. Voss is amazing! Voss has just been nominated for the Knights Cross, Voss in his mighty Panther D has 40 kills and a Star Rating! TUrn 20, HQ just got nailed by 122mm arty. Sitting too close to my mech mortars! HQ got hit a few times, but mostly just suppression and no casualties. Had to scatter my Mortar tracks except one pinned and one immobilized one. Scratch that, the 122mm Arty immobilized the other mortar track. The Pioneers I kept in reserve I moved through a friendly woods section and to the south with the panthers and now they are in the fight (really last mopping up), those guys gut 28cm Flammen Wefers! A lot of Russians are in retreat now, and mostly it's a mop up. I ain't going to be chasing them either! Lost a few good men but such is war (paper/electronic war). I love this game.

On turn 22 of 37. Lets see what happens now. Mostly just mopping up, the stupid La-5N came back on turn 28 and Lt. Mayer (251/17) shot finally shot one down. Status, 3 of my mortar tracks have lost their mortars and 2 of these are immobilized. Both 251/17 have lost their guns as well. 1 StuG IIIg got knocked out and 1 is immobilized. I lost one of the Pioneers 251/1 half-tracks (crew survived) and one got immobilized. The mortar platoon leader Oberlt. Barnstorf in the 250/8 got immobilized in rough terrain as well.

Anther DV, the battle reports shows 92 knocked out vehicles to my 3, and I lost about 63 men to his 544. At this point in the game Kampfgruppen Gross has lost 447 men, 1 artillery piece, 9 APCs, 18 AFV (4 catastrophic) and lost 2 Air Transports. While claiming at least 2966 casualties, 47 artillery pieces, 260 knocked out tanks, and 2 downed aircraft. 6 DV out of 7 battles, not bad.

Promotions:
OberLt. Wiedmann with 38 kills got his Star (now I have 2 a Panther and a Tiger with Stars)

Status:

Tigers (Wiedemann * in G0)
G0 Kills 38
G1 Kills 34
G2 Kills 22
G3 Kills 18
G4 Kills 13
-- ----- --
Totals 125

Panthers (Osterloh in I1)
I0 Kills 26
I1 Kills 32
I2 Kills 14
I3 Kills 26
I4 Kills 40 (Voss *)
-- ----- --
Totals 138

StuG IIIg Batterie (Fldwbl. Rittenhaus - Replacemnt for Major Stolze who was KIA on 8/30/1943)

StuG Btr (Rittenhaus)
N0 Kills 0

StuG Zug (Wisch)
O0 Kills 7
O1 Kills 7
O2 Kills 7
-- ----- -
Totals 21

StuG Zug (Scherrer)
P0 Kills 7
P1 Kills 6
P2 Kills 7
-- ----- -
Totals 20

StuG Zug (Urbanitz)
Q0 Kills 10
Q1 Kills 05
Q2 Kills 00
-- ----- --
Totals 15

Grand totals
Tiger's: 125
Panther's: 138
StuG's: 56
--------------
Grand Total: 319


Battle 8 will be next...

[Sgt_Walrus]

Nice work bro.
It is fun to read, you should keep it up.
Cheers
SGT

[dlazov]

Battle 8

Core Force Value: 4216

Date: 9/1943 (East Front)
Mission: Meeting Engagement
Place: Sinelnikovo, Ukraine
visibility: 37 hexes
Terrain: Very open, grasslands with some rolling plains.

Support points: Bought the standard 10.5cm abt. 4x 2cm FlaKs. 2x Scouts sections.

Setup and Plan: This one is tough, very open ground, not much cover at all (in fact I don't see one single hex of woods on the map).

KG Gross mission is a meeting engagement across very open ground with little to no cover at the visibility is 37 hexes on a 100x60 map.

Hpt. Bertram company has deployed in the south (across from his company is a very large hill. Kramer platoon is directly in front of him, Ehrhardt is deployed on the extreme south and Krohner platoon is the northern most platoon (in this section), deployed in every other hex interspersed with Oberlt. Wiedemann (38 kills and a star) Tiger platoon.

Lt. Mayer (251/17 AAA tracks) section is setup on the very west side next to a small village.

Hpt. Osterloh (with 32 kills) Panthers are deployed just to the north of the Tigers.

Hpt. Hollmichihel infantry company is deployed to the extreme north with (again) the only east-west running road. Directly in front of him is Oberlt Witt platoon, on the right (south) is Oberlt Waldmuller platoon and in the south (of this section of the map ) is Oberlt Karthaus platoon.

Fewebel Rittenhaus (the new CO) StuG IIIg are deployed with each of these infantry platoons; Oberlt Wisch is in the North with Witt, Oberlt Scherrer is with Waldmuller and Oberlt Urbanitz is with Karthaus.

Oberlt Frey with his mech pioneers is deployed in a gully in reserve.

Oberlt Barnsdorf mech mortars are deployed in a reverse slope position.

And the support units are deployed as follows: The 2cm Vierling (4xguns) are deployed in the back within the two owned VH and the scouts sections are deployed one each with each infantry company.

It's the best I can do with this area and the location of units and the mission.

Germans go first. Balls to the wall and fight Ivan.

First contact on Soviet Turn 2, a Ba-64 over the hill took a VH and one of the panthers took a shot at him. Soviet Turn 3, 3 burning BA-64's. German Turn 4, one of the StuG IIIg killed the other Ba-64 recon unit. Soviet Turn 4, some 82mm arty lands behind my Panthers, some more BA-64's I spot and shoot at as well as some T-60's. Same Russian tactics so far. Scouts, and recon first, sure to see some tanks and infantry next.

German turn 6, crescendo of battle as per normal. Soviet turn 6, darn, BM-13 Katyusha hit near my Panthers and I2 is immobilised (Naumann), and Il-2 attacked .. and I have 6 AAA guns laying about and not a one of them fired! Soviet turn 8, heavy tank attacks in the center and south, the center may have been repulsed (for now!) and the southern section is unknown. Tiger >> had moved up to this hill just a bit ahead of the follow along infantry, and spotted several T-34's and Kv's, but some stinking infantry popped up and talk about scary!

German turn 10, crushed most of the center attack, the southern one appears to be stalling as well. Hum, turn 10 of 30, no the Soviets must be hiding a ton of stuff elsewhere, even though I have killed a lot of stuff, those Il-2 are still about. Soviet turn 10, the Il-2's came on but they attacked my most southern infantry platoon and Lt. Mayer damaged one of them.

Soviet turn 13 a major Soviet infantry attack in the lower central sector, in this area is a big hill, this is where I sent 1 infantry company and the Tiger platoon. Slowly repulsing the hordes of Russians.

Game turns 14-16 sees a lot of killing of Russians in the south. Turns 17-19 the main Soviet infantry push has been defeated and the Soviets are on the run. I estimate about a battalion sized rifle unit. Soviet turn 18 OberLt. Wisch StuG IIIg was shot by a T34/85, he escaped. It seems like the Soviets called up at least 2 platoons of tank reinforcements, but their is only one left alive now and he is immobilized. On Soviet Game turn 19 he attacked me with his last Il-2, and I found his 76mm artillery positions (rearward).

Found a MG nest with 82mm mortars and 2 37mm AAA, one of the AAA knocked out one of my Pioneer's 251/1 half-track, the crew survived.

Soviet game turn 23, that irritating Il-2 came on again, still has rockets and picked on a StuG, no effect but suppression.

Battle 8 ended on turn 25, German DV, breakdown of losses is incredible:

Germany Russia
Men 24 699
Art 0 20
APC 1 0
AFV 1 47

So far the grand totals of tank losses in 8 battles is Germany 19 and Soviets 307.

My force value is now 4316 (I only upgraded one unit from PzAufscout to a PzfaustScout) so most of this is due to experience. I have 3314 in the bank.

Next battle:
Sinelo, 9/1943 Meeting engagement

Status so far:

Promotions: A lot of infantry units promoted to experience, Langkeit and Osterloh receive stars)

Status:

Tigers (Wiedemann * in G0)
G0 Kills 44
G1 Kills 42
G2 Kills 25
G3 Kills 25
G4 Kills 15
-- ----- --
Totals 151

Panthers (Osterloh in I1)
I0 Kills 32
I1 Kills 42 (Osterloh *)
I2 Kills 17
I3 Kills 40 (Langkeit *)
I4 Kills 49 (Voss *)
-- ----- --
Totals 180

StuG IIIg Batterie

StuG Btr (Rittenhaus)
N0 Kills 1

StuG Zug (Wisch)
O0 Kills 7
O1 Kills 7
O2 Kills 7
-- ----- -
Totals 21

StuG Zug (Scherrer)
P0 Kills 7
P1 Kills 7
P2 Kills 8
-- ----- -
Totals 22

StuG Zug (Urbanitz)
Q0 Kills 12
Q1 Kills 06
Q2 Kills 01
-- ----- --
Totals 19

Grand totals
Tiger's: 151
Panther's: 180
StuG's: 62
--------------
Grand Total: 393

Gearing up for 9th battle soon...

[Artur]

Hey Don,

Good reading, keep them coming .

Artur.

[dlazov]

Thanks for all who are posting an interest. Besides reading about stuff, I just learned how to post images (embarrassingly enough).

Here is a Zoomed out view of Battle 9, and my basic plan. When I post the AAR you see that the terrain and my plan are very simplistic in this one.

[pdoktar]

I think with such large forces, you could consider increasing the map size to give you and the enemy more room for manouver. If you give a large map for the AI when its assaulting, it can give you some nasty surprises, as you can´t cover the whole area with adeqaute forces, and then you´ll find yourself truly in the need of a reserve. If you have too small maps, especially the AIs advance and assault becomes very easy to stop.

And as I now see, this map is getting somewhat small for your own advances too, because you´ll just end up doing a basic frontal assault. It´s your choice anyhow.

[dlazov]

pdoktar, correct in all aspects. I have been musing over increasing the map size, remember when I started this I had one Inf.Coy. and one tank platoon. The force has now grown to 2 Inf.Coy. and 2 Tank platoons, and 1 Stug Battery (10) and one Mech Platoon and one AAA section and one Mech Mortar section...so yes next "end" game I believe I can change the map preferences N/S, anyway, will post again soon.