Spoogles and I have concluded our battle with a minor victory for the US Army.
Unlike the non-violent chess match I had recently fought against The Stache, this game was a crazy violent sh*t-show with 350 casualties and a few hundred corpses on the battlefield. Someone should get tagged with a cool nickname like "The Butcher of Dorfborn" lol.
I will surely be courts martialed or possibly fragged by my own troops for the ghastly way I pushed young American soldiers repeatedly into enemy kill zones in vain attempts put boots on objective dolphin, despite the strategic failure of my assault plan. Regarding that... I experimented with siege howitzers and ended up paying the stupid tax here. I had planned a shock and awe type artillery finale to prep the ground for invasion. I had 2 platoons of 155 and two of 120, both organic to my formation, I brought two extra 204 platoons, you know, the maximum allowed by law. Commander ALBY did not do his homework and to my great suprise, the call times for these guns is crazy SLOW and the rate of fire is also SLOW. In a quandry, I attempted to adjust the mission, and my spotter was turned to red paste during the spotting process by a mortar burst and the guns went into limbo. So yes, the timing was such that I ran my troops onto objective EAGLE and DOLPHIN not really knowing if those siege guns would begin firing at just about the same time. self pwn3d. The big guns might have fired 4 rounds total.
I also had trouble getting a spot deep into DOLPHIN and found myself holding extra 155 at the bitter end. It was ammo that really needed to be dropped on the infantry hiding in buildings. So, you know, f@ck this tank instead...
So, to make a long story short, when my infantry showed up at the major objectives, Spoogles troops were not pinned and panicking in collapsed buildings. They were still pretty frosty and the assault looked like a trench storming scene from Gallipoli. It was not a proud day for American Infantry.
On the plus side, we took minor objective COWBOY and that fire plan and attack went well. American troops are very effective jungle fighters.
We also shot down some choppers, but only after they attacked and broke my formations that were in the open, trying to get close to DOLPHIN. It was a very effective use of inexpensive airpower. Spoogles ran a clinic on 'bang for your buck' airpower here.
I brought most of a dismounted infantry battalion and 3 TTS tanks, 2 vulcans and one m113 for use as a command vehicles.
Of course, this M113 along with battalion command and a bunch of HQ units was hit directly with a 120MM mortar about mid game, killing them all.
The TTS tanks could spot and hit, but not kill enemy tanks. This tank took 4 105 hits and a TOW.
If I had brought 155 instead of 204, then I do believe I would have turned the major objectives into a lunar landscape and my plan could have succeeded. But, as this battle sits, I gamed it and ran onto the objectives to contest them. If Spoogles pushed back, my troops would surely fold like grandma on laundry day.
This battle was great fun and I would like to commend my opponent for being an excellent opponent in every way. Thank you to OPO for his efforts here.
