Corsaire31 vs Wilhelm Monke AAR

[Corsaire31]

We are now at turn 35, and situation is as follows.
On the extreme right I own the small flag with a platoon, nobody will come that way now. Just in case I have a squad and a zook team overlooking the crossroad with appropriate fire arcs.
On the right of the center flag, my remaining boys are holding their ground, full of ammo and the Co HQ for the morale. In front the jerries at the flag take a lot of fire, incl. from my 2 support MGs which are getting very low on ammo.
On the left of the center flag, I can bring almost a whole platoon with ammo, although squads are by now a little depleted (but I'm sure his guys took some either...)
From the left of the map comes the protection platoon which can close the flag region depending how many turns will the fight last. They have plenty of ammo and almost no losses. The Sherman 1 is going around the woods to its new firing position where it will be able to support this platoon.
All in all, I am going for a draw game, (which I think would be fair for both players) since I own the small flag and try to neutralize the big one. I have more losses in vehicles, I am sure he has a lot more losses among his infantry...

Then the return of the Tiger near the flag...

Will there be a Tiger - Episode 5 ? Who will win this game ? When will we start throwing boots and helmets at each other ? Who will survive, who will die ?
End of the AAR by tomorrow (we are now at turn 39...)

 

[Corsaire31]

THE END...

With the return of the Tiger to the flag, I start having shivers and radio to Sherman 1 :
" Where are you guys, looking for mushrooms in the woods or what ? We have a f... war going on here..."
" That's OK, Sir, just these damn trees slowing us down, we are getting in fire position to support the grunts."
" Make it fast, our guys are having a bad time..."

During that redeployment phase, I have been concentrating MG fire on my worst nightmare, the 251/16 flamer. Tired of their vehicle being punctered with multiple holes of various sizes, and after dodging one or two rifle grenades, the crew decides to call it quit and look for safety in the woods.. Hurray !!

 

[Corsaire31]

With the support of the Sherman, I can now call my platoon leader from the protection platoon :
" HQ here, tank support is in position, you guys are going to compete for the 200m world record... Move, move !!"

On the other side of the map, my Sherman 2 is dodging fire from Pzfausts while reversing out of trouble...

 

[Corsaire31]

Last sight of the Tiger firing the only shot of the game where it actually killed something.

I hold the right flag, the center is neutralized and the game gives me a 60/40 minor victory. I myself consider it as a draw, and I am surprised to see he didn't loose more infantry than me... I get more points because my average troops killed as many veterans on his side. He lost almost half of his guys, I lost 1/3 but I had more boots on the ground.
(Sorry my game is 2/3 german, 1/3 english...lol)

 

[Corsaire31]

CONCLUSION

Most important thing, it has been an interesting and fun game, no real decision until last turns, good and bad surprises... After staying 2 years out of CM, exactly the type of game that makes me now shout for more...
Respect for my opponent who didn't make many mistakes, put up a fight to the last second and above all was funny and friendly in the mail exchanges..

The game seen from my side :

I think my strategy was overall good considering the shape of ground and covers. I did not regret diverting forces to the small flag, because it gave me the victory points.

Important things : the way my troops were laid, I always kept complete situational awareness, only loosing sight of the Marder for half a turn. My dead sniper did the job with early warning of the bunch of tourists, giving me time to organize a welcome party. The smoke laying was right on time and target, and the bonus was the death of a Sk251 flamer to the 60mm mortars. A great idea to divert another platoon for close protection of my support (I must say I gave it a lot of thinking time during setup... Should I ? Should I not ?) Glad I did otherwise the Tiger would have gone around the map edge, the grenadiers accompanying him would have wrecked havoc in my support troops.

Mistakes : focusing a lot of attention on the Tiger, although it didn't cause any damage. (may be because of this attention ?) being too optimistic in assaulting the flag without a Sherman shelling before, being influenced again by the presence of the Tiger and rushing Quad .50 HT to the rescue, when I should have better left it out of harm's way where it was.

Now I leave the thread to my opponent's comments. We have decided to start right away a revenge game... Anybody feel free to add any comments.
" Gute Jagd und fette Beute" !!

 

[Cue-Ball]

Great AAR. Your up close shots are great and give a real feeling of how the battle is going. I didn't see any obvious mistakes on your part, and your strategies all seemed to work. If your quad .50 had been able to do more damage you might have even got a better victory (but, of course, hindsight is always 20/20).

It's hard NOT to pay attention when there's a Tiger on the battlefield. They can dish out so much damage and are so difficult to deal with, they pretty much demand that you take heed.