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Here you go kiddies. I'm standing up to the madman from Plymouth.

Mick and I go way back to the WaW forum days... We've had our tussles and scrapes, and I've learned to appreciate Mick as you do a fine aged smelly bacteria ridden provinciale cheese. He is entertaining, you must give him that.

That being said, Mick is an imposing tactical master of his own style of game and he is very good at running armor. Therefore, how do you beat him, and his "armored fist" tactics, and especially on a map that is small and is his preferred venue for playing upon?

Hopefully I can give you all a good sound tactical play by play against Mick so that I can expose his weaknesses (and mine... there are plenty more of those I assure you).

Our past record is 4 wins for me, 2 wins for Spike, and 2 draws. OF course the wins I engineered were due to ghey or tricksy tactics that negate them as victories in Mick's eyes....

LMAO!!

Even if I lose this one (as all of you who have played me know, Tank Combat is not my strength), you will be able to pick up a few tricks and tactics that will help you to defend the honor of the Blitz against this Saxon marauder from Plymouth.

Cheers all!

Leto

Here is the strategy:

POS loves to zip to the flags with his tank riders and then hide them all at the back of the objective flags so that you have to come onto his turf and get blasted.

Infantry getting to the front quickly is key, but not if you get them shot up in the process.

In the West I have one platoon of infantry moving forward with a Captain (acting as spotter) and a mortar.

In the Center I have a platoon of Tigers with tank riders and 2 platoons of infantry. Make sure that all heavy weapons and panzershreks are loaded on board first as the infantry squads can leg it faster. The key goal here is to roll up the road out of LOS and then squeeze into a 4 tank keyhole on the church flag and beyond.

In the East is my flank defense (as my center tanks have to expose sides on the road). One platoon of Tigers and 1 platoon of infantry.

The overall strategy is to get in quick just out of LOS of any of POS's first and second round speed movements and deposit my infantry in a solid line ahead of my tanks to screen against Mick's own infantry.



The green arrow represents the crack sniper. He will move quickly up to the front to establish LOS from either the 2nd floor heavy building or the woods between the east and center flags. All other infantry movements after initial deployment will be concealed by using sneak commands.

One last tip, the 2nd infantry platoon in the center (with MG's and shreks on tanks with the first platoon) will start on a run command. This will get them down that road very quickly. One infantry squad from the first platoon has to leg it as well as 2nd platoon's heavies are on the tanks.

So far the strategy is simple, move assets as close to the line as possible but maintaining concealment. Armor will not move once it gets to the initial set up positions and the infantry has moved forward to ascertain Mick's movements. Tanks are in overwatch for now.

The blue arrows of course are simply the three ways that Mick will advance. In all of his AAR's he has split his armor into two platoons, so I do not expect anything different.

This is the end of beginning strategy, the next few turns I will get more tactical, using terrain, objectives, movement tricks and LOS attainment explanations. I'll also point out the keyholing tricks that Spike uses and evaluate how to defeat this tactic.

God willing that I do not lose any Tigers early to immobilization (one of the reasons you use roads all the time with these beasties), I should hopefully enter turn 2 or 3 intact.

This is a 20+ turn game, so there is infinite amounts of time here for such a small map. NO need to rush or make bad LOS decisions.

Cheers!

Leto

Turn 1 of this cheezefest begins.



After running a few tests to see how far a firefly could get its ass up the road, I reasonably settled for grinding it out to where my Tigers now sit in the center.

Two platoons of von Rico's Roughenheimenneckens hit the ground running. Infantry will advance and the Tigers will stay put. Just the way they actually did it in WW2. My sniper heads for the 2 story heavy building with his eyeballs on. Being Elite, he'll glide like a ghost. That being said, Mick's got a ghost of his own out there. I guess I better button up!

As you can see, the middle flag should be mine, but the two far flags are on his side of the road. My strategy is to lure Spike into my flank in the center and hopefully my crouching Tigers to the east will be ready.

Now to wait and see what shakes out.

Cheers!

Leto

Note:

If anyone has any questions, suggestions, or even wants to lend me some advice, feel free to post it here. All are welcome.

Also, if you like what you see, throw a few green clickies my way (one's that you might have otherwise used on the Coil, or such...)

: )

Yes, I have no shame.

Cheers!

Leto

[hirr]Leto, looking forward to another entertaining action report!

I was curious why you swung out to the left the Company HQ & mortar? It seems that force is more of a screening force that likely will not contest the left flag.

Why not start with the Co & mortar in the middle, which seems to be the main attacking force? Maybe strip a squad or two (from the left and/or elsewhere) and give the Co something of a small reserve? Or otherwise have the Co's flexibility for the other three platoons, rather than off to the side.

I tried something along these lines when I played this scenario as the Axis. I put a split squad and hq on the left (as well as a couple of shrecks), and I put the co, two squads and the mortar as a "reserve" in the middle. I ended up pushing my tanks in the middle too far forward right out of the gate and immediately got into hot water (that'd be the two burning tigers on the middle road in POS's rematch pic). So, I never really found out if this approach had anything to it.

The scene on turn 3:

No time for Bratwurst breaks, the infantry moves ahead. Plot short movements with runs in between cover. As you never know when you will be fired on, watch LOS and try to move in cover at all times... this is better for concealment and also better for you in terms of medicare premiums.



Note the sniper takes the highest perch on the block. HE will only snipe when commanded as I will covered arc him as soon as he is in position. He is an observer first, and constant gardner second (planting bullets in Tank Commanders soft fertile heads).

Cheers!

Leto

You will note in this last DAR, the Oberst and his mortar crew are moving more into the center. Even though they are part of the western screening force, I have purposely put them at the far right and ahem, somewhat in the middle. With the command range of the Oberst being +1 I can move him a fair distance back into the middle while the mortar stays middle left.

AS said before, I am not planning on attacking with my infantry. They are a screen for my tanks. If they come up against tanks or infantry, they will hide and or withdraw, reposition. Shreks will move forward for a shot at the bad guys wearing iron diapers, but maintain concealment. I need to flush some of his infantry with mine, so I can begin to blast his infantry to bits with 88 fire.

This is a game of attrition. You want to demolish the forces of the enemy as much as possible before you advance. It is a game of chess where you want to get blasting position on his infantry while he can't get at yours with his tanks and hopefully lure his tanks out for shreks and other armor to engage and destroy.

Unfortunately, this game is set up so that he who has the most armor last will most likely win. Eighty eight HE is the best way I know to clear infantry from objective hexes.

Cheers!

Leto

Spike's troops appear!



As you can see above, Spike is being very cautious and also trying to lure out my tanks and troops by marching his own troops forward with little regard for their own safety.

Many of his Brits are now caught in crossfires and in the open.  Those moving towards the two heavy buildings on his side of the road do not know that they are now slated for demolition by a couple of 88 wrecking balls.

I've used my Crack Tiger to lay down area fire, and a second tiger in the rear row to do so as well.  This is due to the Crack units ability to discern more threatening units appearing in LOS, such as tanks, and then quickly move to them, giving up the area fire order.  The other two tanks are just directly targeting the infantry.  That way, they too can change targets quickly if necessary.

The sniper in the 2nd floor heavy building spots a PIAT team and hopefully he can kill it outright being ELITE.

Now that Spike knows where my first set of tanks are, he will work to move into some kind of a tactical kill positioning, and I am hoping this will lure a few fireflies into my flank where my own FLANK group of Tigers awaits.

So far, my style has mirrored POS's grouping tactics, but only for awhile longer.  Once I can identify where his main tank groups are, my own units will be split into main and flanking sections to take on his own groups.

Also, due to the Elite Brit sniper out there, make sure that every turn you unbutton, and then re-button your tanks.  This way you ensure that no TC heads are being used for target practice (TC heads pop up automatically every two turns when they are not under direct infantry or MG fire.)

Lastly, my panzershreck teams are moving into keyhole positions, and moving CAREFULLY. I do not want to lose them to an unknown unit rising up and popping them. These shrecks will hopefully be able to render a few fireflies into smoking wrecks as I lure them in to take on my Tigers.



Cheers!

Leto

Great DAR Pete. Looking forward to the next installment.

Are you worried that the buttoning will reduce the Tiger's ability to re-target if the Fireflies hove into sight?