The Beginners AAR

[Banjohero]

So, this is my first AAR and my first game of CMFB outside of the training campaign. I do this because I always wanted to write an AAR, and writing down what I'm doing also helps me think it through better. I'm very much a beginner, but learning. So any tips are welcome!

Warning, the mission I am playing is the first mission from the Courage Conquers campaign, so if you don't want it spoiled, please don't read any further.

I will try to keep it kinda in-character, most of the time anyway. I'm not very versed in military jargon (especially in english) and specifics of the different vehicles, equipment etc. That will come in time, but please correct me if/when I get something wrong.

Let me know if I should have more/less pictures, explanations etc, and of what.

Lets begin..

1150 Hours, December 23, 1944.

We are the Combat Command Reserve and our mission is to secure the flanks of the CCA. They are moving north towards Bastogne, to relieve the forces trapped there by the German counterattack. Our mission is to secure and hold the crossroads at Flatzborhouf. Secondary objectives will be to reconnoitre nearby roads and dislodging German screening forces.

Expected enemy forces are fallschirmjagers from the 15th Parachute regiment, 5th Parachute Division. There are known enemy armour forces in area, but we are uncertain to their present location.

Briefing:

The map:
http://banjohero.imgur.com/all/

First in are the 2nd recon platoon of the 37th Tank Battalion, followed by B company. Consisting of two M4A1 76mm Shermans, three M4A3 75mm shermans, an M4 sherman and lastly an M4 Sherman 105mm Assault gun.
Recon team arriving:

Our tank battalion:

We are paired with the B Company of the 53rd Armored Infantry, showing up with 2nd, 3rd and 4th platoons in halftracks, including supporting weaponry. Each platoon with two medium machine gun teams and a 60mm light mortar.

We also get a forward observer team from B/37 able to call on two batteries of M7 Priest howitzers, from the 94th Armored Field Artillery Batallion.

Current situation and further plan

The recon platoon has been scouting along the copses in the middle, west of the road leading to Flatzbourhof, designated Objective Able 3. The scouting so far have resulted in a single spotted german soldier in the forest eastwards. Additionally we lost one recon soldier. Sadly we couldn’t spot the attacker, but we suspect the shot came from the house to the north-west, or the copse to the left of it.

The single spotted enemy, note the anti-tank launcher

Scouts watching the area we recieved fire from:

We suspect a presence of more than the single soldier in the forest, and the first phase of my plan is to use the second and fourth platoon of B/53 to advance and take control of the eastern forest. If we can gain control of the forest, we will establish a base of fire on the edge, overlooking objective Able. The halftracks will transport the infantry to just below the crest of the hill before unloading, and afterwards provide supporting fire.

The plan:

The thicker part of the forest, where we spotted the single soldier is suspected to hold more enemies. So we have called in a light barrage of howitzer fire to suppress any forces there before attacking (the yellow line).

Mortars setting up:

When the 2nd and 4th platoon have advanced sufficiently to eliminate any flanking fire from the forest, we will cautiously advance the third platoon along the copse west of the road, while using the 60mm mortars to shell the copse and house to the northwest, and between the outlying houses of the village.

4th platoon moving up on the eastern side:

I want to move most of the shermans west out into the open areas to provide covering fire on the village. But I’m hesitant to send them out there, fearing enemy panzers and hidden anti-tank guns. Especially in the copse west of the village, and the forested hill north of the village.

OOC: I lost 9 tanks at Lutrebois in the final training mission, 5 of them to a single tank-destroyer. Sending them out without knowing what is out there is scary, but I don’t have any good plans on how to get eyes out there. Maybe I could use a jeep or two to transport some scouts to the copse on the west side of the map. Suggestions?

 

[Gnarly]

Welcome!

I'd love to follow, but don't want the campaign spoiled (for when I have downtime from PBEMs). But appreciate your keenness to do an AAR! Good screenshots thus far as well.

 

[Lethal]

Good luck with your AAR!
Documenting your progress should be fun and a great way to review your tactical prowess.
What is the level? - Elite/Normal etc
Enjoy!

 

[Dutch Grenadier]

awesome read and good of you to start an AAR.

 

[coffeeandmilk]

Nice read. I'll definitely follow your
AAR. I would prefer to loose 2 jeeps to 1 tank. So if it's possible try to get eyes on the enemy before moving your tanks forward. I'm a noob to the game like you. It's just my opinion. Looking forward to your next post.[emoji106]

 

[A Canadian Cat]

This is great. I'll be sure to follow along. I agree with @coffeeandmilk's advice about not moving tanks up without having eyes on the area in front of them first. Also fully loaded HTs tend to generate a large amount of casualties if they get hit by something even reasonably powerful. By all means use them as taxis where it is safe. My advice though is travel dismounted if you either know the enemy is near by, suspect the enemy is near by or cannot verify that no enemy is nearby. Near by for AT guns and tanks is 2km, for infantry 400m.

Also super minor thing but in the tip bucket for AAR writers. <shift><ESC> will pause the game with out the "Paused" notice which makes it easier to get screen shots.

 

[Banjohero]

awesome read and good of you to start an AAR.

Thank you, it's been fun so far!

Good luck with your AAR!
Documenting your progress should be fun and a great way to review your tactical prowess.
What is the level? - Elite/Normal etc
Enjoy!

Yeah, it gets me thinking more about what I'm doing. I'm playing on veteran difficulty, as recommended in the manual. I didn't really catch the big differences, except that easy takes away the spotting/communication aspect. I also heard that higher difficulties just makes all markers generic ones, and I didn't feel like starting that way haha.

Before I begin, I have a couple of questions. I have spotted a tank, and two of my shermans can "see" it, and it lets me give a target order. When targeting, it says "Partial Hull down", I understand this means we can mostly just see the top of the tank, but does it stop them firing? (as my tanks are not firing on it).
Secondly, I have three squads of light mortars, each one attached to an infantry platoon. I put them in the back together with the infantry batallion HQ. Do they need the correct chain of command to be used? I seem to have some trouble calling them in.
I'm also wondering why the 54th is an Armored infantry battalion, does it just mean that they have halftracks? IE. mechanized/motorized infantry?

Sadly, my screenshot program have been troubling me, for some reason capturing the same screenshot over again, instead of the new ones. So it will sadly be image-light.
Episode 2
Its been pretty quiet going so far. My infantry have been moving slowly but surely into the forest. Spotting rounds are falling on the suspected enemy position, but no spottings as of yet. My halftracks are moving up behnd the infantry, to give supporting fire.

We called in another light artillery barrage

Infantry moving up

After a few minutes, we spotted an enemy assault gun (`would that be a tank destroyer?)

I moved some shermans into the wooded area in front of them, to try get a line of fire on the enemy tank. Two of the shermans could barely see the top of it, while the third sadly was spotted first. It took a few rounds, panicking the crew. After four richochets, doing minimal damage my crew was back inside and reversing, when a round partially penetrated the turret, wounding one man and destroying the main gun. The tank, and crew, got out safely, using a smoke grenade for cover while reversing.

The enemy tank have a good position, and seems to realise it. So we have backed behind cover, while calling in an artillery strike from the 94ths 105mm howitzers. We hope it will manage to hit, and wound or kill the tank.

We also received some reinforcements, a platoon of 81mm mortars mounted on halftracks from the 54th Armored infantry battalion.

Thats it for now, will try to see if I can get some of the screens back using my saves.

 

[Lethal]

Re the mortars - after dismounting from the half-track, give them the Deploy Weapon Command and Face them towards the enemy.
Note that the mortar teams do not have a radio. That is the Mortar Pl Leader's role - he will need to be within voice range/LOS of the mortars to relay indirect fire requests.
I play at Elite so not sure how much is applied at Veteran, but good practice at this stage.

Re the en tank - maybe worth directing your tanks to area fire it if you cannot get a direct line of fire to it. May make it move or at least disrupt its LOS/force it to button up.
Always try to force the enemy to button up and keep your tanks unbuttoned for as long as possible. Inevitable you will lose some crew commanders but that is the cost.