CMBN 82nd Airborne Mini-Tournament

This is to confirm to all players that we are using option 2 - Every player plays both scenarios with one team member playing only German in both scenarios and the other team member playing only American in both scenarios.

So, "On your mark ....."
 
Shady Side said:
so who do i play against
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Kandu said:
The dice roll had determined that:
MeatEtr vs sspoom will play "Angriffe der Grenadiere"
Artkin vs ShadySide will play "Shaul's Run Mini"
... unless there are any objections ...
Please set up a shared dropbox with your opponent and one side or the other start your scenario

PLEASE NOTE: Both scenarios have special instructions enabling pre-plotted barrages for one or both sides, sometimes optional, sometimes compulsory.

Please save your turn files so that post-game I may do some screen grabs and upload them to this site for all to enjoy.

Good luck and please keep me posted.
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cool... artkin sent me a invite earlier .... but he has not put anything in box yet
 
Okay @Shady Side and I have started, Good luck Shady, I have played two pbems on this map already, one of which is still in progress. So take your time with it. I'm excited for this one, I really like what I started with. Should be fun, but very difficult.
 
ok i will get a turn back to u soon... i have played a couple games on the other map which is a smaller version of this with attacking role reversed. coming and coming from the other direction........ good luck to u to @Artkin i will be in touch
 
Ok first result is in, @sspoom and me cease fired with 38 mins left with my Axis forces taking the map. Helluva battle and thanks for playing it out, most players would of just surrendered awhile back. Tip of the hat to ya! ;)

Posting AAR here and not in our PM convo so other FGMers can enjoy!

For anybody interested in playing this excellent H2H scenario, be warned...

***SPOILERS BELOW***

Here's a look at the causeway, I know it looks scary but with enough support and good timing. Anythings possible! (y)

8uJfRDc.jpg


Even though I was confident of having fire superiority from my HMGs from across the flooded ground. I wasnt risking it so used both my 81mm off map on turn 1. Then followed that up with a 5 min delay for both my 120s, a 105, and a smoke 105. Detailed placements in pic below. This effectively allowed my forces to cross the bridge and spread out for the attack with minimal losses. Though one of his 60mm mortars did cause some damage, 13 kills.

VPUnTgp.jpg


I think right before the smoke started I lost one my light tanks (Pz 35R) to his 57mm AT gun on the road overwatching the bridge. Expected it to be there but the LOS across the map surprised me. Had another 2 of these with a Pzr III.

When the smoke cleared I pretty much owned the middle road. Took out his AT gun along with a mortar and MMG there. My two on board 81s helped here. At this point my main effort was to secure the first two lines of hedgerows on my left flank. Once this was secure this allowed me to push down the left road for a left hook. So his forces to the left side of the middle road hedgerow now were taking fire from both sides.

So at this point with the left side cleared of paratroopers is about when my 105mm starting coming in. This was the smoker from the start, so had to call in for spotting and FFE (fire for effect). Fortunately this was accurate and took little to no losses from it. Unlike from before I was scrambling across the bridge and did take some losses from my own arty. I lost about a dozen to this in total.

Thats about it, after my 105 was done it was time to move in for mop up.

Here's our AAR:

UHlUCwA.jpg


How are the other battles coming along? @Artkin @Shady Side
 
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Great job on this scenario @Kandu This was a fun attack. I dont use much off board arty, so needed the practice. Guess I haven't gotten rusty coordinating it.

Possible tweaks to the Axis side, swap out a couple jeeps for trucks. I know this might be on purpose to slow us down or for historical accuracy. But I think it just makes it more of a headache splitting squads for jeeps. Also could of used a few breach teams too.
 
I was reading your post, and was really confused. I forgot we were playing different scenarios! I will refrain until I have a chance to play that scenario
 
Possible tweaks to the allied side. Don’t limit setup zones so much. None of my Mg teams could setup in forward positions. Along with 1/4 or more of the infantry. Also because of the two separate setup zones the only place for the 57mm was blatantly obvious. And half of the foxholes were useless because they couldn’t be deployed forward. And the forward platoon has no real chance to escape and were sacrificed almost immediately. The axis artillery is overwhelming not only because of the massive amount of smoke available but the arty decimated dug in infantry. The defender has to get lucky to even have a slight chance against a solid axis player.
 
Interesting comments all. My comments which follow are not to dispute but intended to 'fill in' information.
1. Regarding 'trucks vs jeeps' - Historically, the German assault across the causeway was made entirely on foot despite the fact that a platoon of Lt. Col. Shanley's troopers who were still in Geuetteville further to the south had spotted trucks transporting German troops from the south past that village towards La Fiere for the noon attack. To improve historical accuracy, I would be more likely to remove the Kubelwagen as well to prevent players using these as assault vehicles and getting them destroyed to their officer's chagrin.
2. Regarding German smoke - The smoke is extremely significant to assisting a German victory but was not used historically, while and hour-long bombardment was. If I wanted to be 100% historical I would not allow the Germans to shoot smoke but given how badly things went for the Germans historically, I decided to leave the option intact.
3. Regarding location of the US A/Tk gun. Locating the A/Tk gun at the top of the hill on the road is historical but in version 2 of the scenario it is not necessary. There is only one other location on the map that has a reasonably good overlook of sections of the causeway and that is the farm on the extremely far right of the American position near the map edge. There just are no good locations. Historically the A/Tk gun contributed to the destruction of only one German tank with the others disabled by two heroic bazooka teams - a near impossibility in this scenario as they need to survive the bombardment first.
4. German artillery caliber. The Germans could call upon two batteries of 105 and one of 150 mm as well as mortars from their support company. Although a multiple-hour bombardment was reported by the American paras, there is no record available to me of the calibre and amount actually fired. Some of the mortars from the support company may well have been left in the area of Geuetteville to support the attack against Lt. Col. Shanley on Hill 30. When I played the scenario H2H as the defending American, my paras in foxholes on the front lines experienced very few casualities from the bombardment alhtough it did not follow exactly the fire plan shown in the above report. I kept many of my troopers in the stone buildings where there were 'almost' immune and others well to the rear, broken up into squads and not bunched up.
5. American deployment options - The location of the American platoons and supports is well recorded and as historical as possible. I could have another look.
6. Foxholes - should be sufficient in number for one per section.
7. Breach teams - There were no German Pionieren present. From v2 (and now v3) victory locations and values have been changed so that the Germans need not really fight their way through the bocage.


SUMMARY: Two comments.
1. Feel free to edit the scenario to your own taste after the tournament but please add notes of the changes you have made.
2. Based on today's feedback I have modified the scenario (now v3) as follows: (a) removed the truck and 3 of 6 Kubelwagens, (b) added one A/Tk mine to the US side because the German armor was unable to cross the bridge or even to approach it due to a string of visible mines and a blocking wrecked truck, (c) added 10 more foxholes for the Americans, (d) expanded the rearmost American deployment area a bit more to the rear and all the way to the right flank map edge, (e) removed one German 120 schwere Granatwerfer Sektion.

I decided to leave the smoke option intact for play balance.

THANK YOU all for the comments and feedback.
 
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I didn't comment because I figured everything was hardcore realistic. Kandu's scenarios should be widely known for this by now.
The foxholes serve no great purpose in my game either, but when cleverly placed they can add to your defense.
 
Artkin has given me additional fruitful food for thought surrounding the American and German troop quality.

The following was my rationale when I created Angriffe der Grenadiere.
American Troop Quality: Most of the American squads in the scenario were rated 'Veteran' with either 'High' or 'Extreme' motivation. I propose that this is indeed an accurate representation of the 83nd Airborne's 505th PIR's training and demonstrated fanatically tenancious holding of the eastern end of the la Fiere Causeway despite extremely heavy casualites, from the 6th through the 8th of June 1944 and the subsequent dash across the causeway with the few survivors amounting to only a single ad-hoc under-strength company!
The same cannot be said of the 82nd Airborne's 325th Glider Infantry Rgt, the first battalion of which fared poorly during their night crossing of the Merderet further north. The actual crossing was unopposed but they panicked when they ran into German opposition further inland despite the fact that they outnumbered the Germans locally. I therefore rated them lower in the scenarios including them (A Night to Remeber, A Night to Forget and Medal of Honor). The same is true of their 2nd battalions's dash across the causeway the following morning where they, being at full strength, were outperformed by the ad-hoc survivors of the 505th.

In summary, I am confident of my quality assignments for the 82nd Airborne's 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
German Troop Quality: That's another matter. Here I am not so confident. The Germans were also airlanding troops but inexperienced, having never made any such assault. They were led by veteran commanders and in their initial action they were highly motivated, having not yet encountered the stubborn 505th and having been trained by Rommel in how to aggressively oppose airlandings with immediate attacks. Prior to their assault on the causeway they had successfully repulsed two US para elements approaching Amfreville (Col. Millet from the west and Lt. Col. Timmes from the east), and driven American paras out of Cauquigny. They therefore had no reason to doubt their ability until after their failure of the first causeway assault.

At present, in the scenario, 2/3 of the German Zugen are 'Regular' and 1/3 'Veteran'. I WILL CHANGE them all to 'Regular' with a mix of 'High' and 'Normal' motivating but led by 'Veteran' leaders. The crews of the Renault R35 Beutepanzer will be changed to 'Green' and 'Normal' motivation, while their escorting fusiliers will be Regular/Normal.

When creating the scenario I had purposely exaggerated some of the German quality because I suspected that the German player needed that for play balance given that historically they fared poorly in three successive attacks (the third was merely an aborted combat patrol) despite their courage.
Having watched you folks play the scenario and having played it multiple times now myself, I have learned that artifically increasing the German troop quality is unnecessary as there are other unhistorical play balancing features already in place, these being (1) the German ability to use smoke which was not available historically, (2) the German MTR and off-map ART & MTR that probably exceeds in amount and calibre that 'used' by the Germans historically, and (3) the new asymmetrical re-assignment of terrain victory locations.



Justa bella ulciscuntur injurias.
 
Kandu said:
What was the final result?
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9315569.469999988_CM Normandy 2022-09-28 14-18-21.png
3 vehicles lost refers to 1 AT gun KIA. and 2 infantry guns abandoned and left in their positions after rounds complete. (Maybe they were trucks now that I think about it, I really don't pay attention to them unless I'm playing conscripts.)
Speaking of I'm giving the big one a try right now as the americans with conscripts. I'm open to a friendly H2H if someone wants to replace the AI.
 
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