Three Towns (Stafford vs Drifter Man DAR)

Drifter Man said:
What do you guys do about enemy snipers?
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They are not invulnerable by any means. But just like in our recent battle, I could sometimes save them by pulling them back just in time. However, once you pushed me back to the river and had overwatch of the bridge and ford, I it was just a matter of time before you flanked him, and that's exactly what happened.

So my answer would be: Against a human opponent, indirect fire missions are not so effective, because your opponent has time to pull back. Direct fire is better, if possible. Best if you can repositon an AFV and fire in the same turn, so he doesn't get time to relocate.
 
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Bulletpoint said:
They are not invulnerable by any means. But just like in our recent battle, I could sometimes save them by pulling them back just in time. However, once you pushed me back to the river and had overwatch of the bridge, I it was just a matter of time before you flanked him, and that's exactly what happened.

So my answer would be: Against a human opponent, indirect fire missions are not so effective, because your opponent has time to pull back. Direct fire is better, if possible. Best if you can repositon an AFV and fire in the same turn, so he doesn't get time to relocate.
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Yes, this makes sense. I have been direct-firing mortars at them and the assault guns added a few 75mm and 105mm. Plus 150mm indirect - quite a few fell close to them.
They are not invulnerable, but they are just one specific guy that you have to hit. If a HE shell explodes and has a, say, 20% chance of killing infantry at a given distance from the blast, from an infantry team it is likely to take one man down. But if your target is one specific guy, then you still have only 20% chance. And so I keep trying and trying and they just survive, survive and survive.
 
That's just CM life I guess. If it's a casualty on your side, it's always the one guy who has the scope, LMG, binoculars, panzerfaust or whatever is important for you. The casualty on the other side is never the guy you want to go down. :LOL:
 
Blady said:
That's just CM life I guess. If it's a casualty on your side, it's always the one guy who has the scope, LMG, binoculars, panzerfaust or whatever is important for you. The casualty on the other side is never the guy you want to go down. :LOL:
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True - although I can't complain about having excessive losses among key personnel in this battle (or in general)

KGBoy said:
And the mood sets to grim. IOW what turns a general into A GENERAL! Something I am distinctly not...
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I doubt anyone on FGM is :)
 
1354 hrs, Turns 62-64. Once I withdrew the StuG from the position of the failed "Operation Kurzschuss", my opponent moved the Firefly further back into the woods. He also send the empty truck away from Hill 33 - another StuG tracked it for about 10 seconds, but this is not enough time to fire a shot at a moving target at this distance. Soon afterwards a rifle team came probing towards the positions of 1/6 Platoon. This time it was me defending and two Brits are down. I expect more mortar fire on my position but I am running out of space behind me to retreat. So we hold.

We were discussing uncommon vehicles - this counts as one. SPW 251/3 Ausf. C command halftrack, demoted to the role of a troop transport. All halftracks come as either Ausf. C or D. There is no difference other than the shape of their upper hull - Ausf. C is an older variant with more angles. It also costs more rarity points in CMBN, being replaced by the simplified Ausf. D.

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At the center and at Hill 36, I make no progress as I try to hit the enemy with more mortar fire. I lose one man on the hill and another from the 5th Company at the center. My opponent managed to find another position for a tank, where he cannot be easily hit but can easily hit a lot of things, so I'll try to repeat the trick and adjust the 150mm mission to target this tank. In addition, I find a possible angle on two other tanks guarding the access to the center. If I manage to move a StuG without getting spotted, I might get a flanking shot at them.

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Finally, in the back I lose a man from 6th Company HQ - although he was hugging the ground, he caught shrapnel from a 3in mortar bomb. It is interesting to see how differently the mortars perform. Stafford has fired 175 mostly indirect rounds from 3in and just 38 (direct) from 2in. These hit 6 men (3 in) and 5 men (2 in).
 
Drifter Man said:
although he was hugging the ground, he caught shrapnel from a 3in mortar bomb.
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I'm wondering if being prone or standing up is even taken into account when it comes to explosions. I've seen many cases where a mortar bomb comes in and explodes among some running or standing troops, but they take no casualties. And then in other cases, it's the guy prone 80m away that gets hit.
 
Seems you have a pretty good foothold on Hill 36 now. Hadn't noticed you managed to get across the fields and intro the trees with that much infantry.
 
Bulletpoint said:
I'm wondering if being prone or standing up is even taken into account when it comes to explosions. I've seen many cases where a mortar bomb comes in and explodes among some running or standing troops, but they take no casualties. And then in other cases, it's the guy prone 80m away that gets hit.
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I think it is taken in into account, but the chance of someone getting hit is quite low even when the explosion is close.
In this case the team was hiding and the mortar bomb exploded on the ground 34 meters away.

Bulletpoint said:
Seems you have a pretty good foothold on Hill 36 now. Hadn't noticed you managed to get across the fields and intro the trees with that much infantry.
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It is one full platoon and they are catching their breath now, unfortunately they are difficult to move - a few invisible Brits in the woods are reliably holding them back. I am trying to mortar them to death, but the mortars are starting to become a threat to my own troops when they are so close to the enemy.
One team is about 60-70 meters from the immobilized Cromwell... but crossing this distance to get to faust range will be hard.
 
Drifter Man said:
Stafford has fired 175 mostly indirect rounds from 3in and just 38 (direct) from 2in. These hit 6 men (3 in) and 5 men (2 in).
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Just out of curiosity, how do you distinguise between direct and indirect fire as the "victim"? I assume tou mean they're still onboard mortars just fired indirectly?
 
Blady said:
Just out of curiosity, how do you distinguise between direct and indirect fire as the "victim"? I assume tou mean they're still onboard mortars just fired indirectly?
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I "cheat". You can hear where the mortars are firing from - even when there is no LOS or they are too far away to be spotted, you can hear their sound coming from where they are.
If the mortars have no direct LOS to where they are firing, they must be firing indirectly. I even have an idea where the spotting unit is, but this time I don't want to interfere because he is mostly wasting ammo.
 
1355 hrs, Turn 65. After taking two casualties on Hill 36 in the past few minutes, I put more mortar fire on the crest of the hill where the fire has been coming from. Some nice hits are scored, but I still wait for more before moving on. As soon as I can, I want to advance north (left in the image below), first taking out that Cromwell. The armored car to the right was destroyed early in the battle by artillery. I wonder where the crew is - they left the car to scout on foot before it was destroyed, but I never saw them again.



I am also getting increasingly adventurous at the Orchard - my "diversionary operation". Three more 150mm shells landed in it and the mortar mission is finally about to begin. A sniper and a few scouts are firing at my troops from the hills north of Louvoy - I lose a man to long-range LMG fire. I'll try to suppress them using my own MGs on the North Ridge. The absence of enemy armor is encouraging, but I am sure a tank will show up when my attack becomes more serious.

 
1357 hrs, Turns 66-67. Some interesting stuff is happening. At the Orchard my opponent finally reveals his armor. A Stuart pops up from behind the farm buildings next to the Orchard and an M5A1 halftrack appears on the hill North of Louvoy, gunner ready to fire his M2HB. This was not unexpected, but it catches the advancing troops in an unenviable position, because they will be cut off (or cut down). That's 8 men I can probably do nothing for, but at least I hope they can put up a fight. Stafford's armor remains out of open sight, seeing just enough to fire at some infantry. It is possible he will get bolder when I realizes there is nothing at the moment to threaten the tank. The reason for this is that I moved my only StuG here towards the center to get a flanking shot at two Cromwells - a risky operation in itself. I tried to keep it out of sight and out of hearing (I believe infantry hearing range is 250 m), but it is always possible I was spotted. Does Stafford know what I am going to do? Does he have a PIAT team hidden in the field where I am going? I have infantry there, but not enough. But I need to put some holes in Stafford's tanks, otherwise I'll never win this battle. Meanwhile, the mortar barrage on the Orchard is disappointing. It is "on target", but all the time too long, too short or too much to one side...

Edit - just noticed the error in the image below - there is only one Stuart I know of, the one at the Orchard (to the left). Posting at midnight is not a good idea...



On Hill 36 I finally get an infantry team into position. They fire a Panzerfaust... and miss. The immobilized Cromwell fires back, hitting one man. I said it would be difficult to kill this tank.

 
1358 hrs, Turn 68. At the Orchard I scramble get the most exposed infantry units to relative safety from the Stuart and the halftrack. One man is hit by a fragment of 37 mm HE when the Stuart area fires a position of one scout team. He becomes the lucky winner of the "100th casualty" award. A HMG position I put on the North Ridge is targeted by a direct 3in mortar strike from my opponent's setup zone. I can't extract them from there - the fire is too accurate - so they are almost certain to take casualties in the coming minutes. I can also hear a second mortar in the setup zone popping a shot towards the end of the turn - possibly a spotting round. I will be looking out for impact in the next turn. For now I guess is that it will be targeting the 5th Company positions at the center.





At the center I shroud the immobilized Cromwell with some smoke using my 81mm mortars to allow my infantry to close distance. An enemy tank is heard approaching 1/5 Platoon at the center - and it fires a few MG bursts, so I can identify it as probable Firefly - American machineguns have different sound from British ones. It may be hunting for my StuH 42 that I attached to the 5th Company. I will withdraw the vehicle and disperse/hide infantry that could be hit if the Firefly starts area firing.

Also, I am now ready to launch Operation "Echter Kurzschuss" (name approved by the High Command). A StuG will try to flank a pair of Cromwells guarding the access to Louvoy. I hope an appropriate deity (Stugg?) will intervene in my favor.

 
1359 hrs, Turn 69. An expensive and frustrating turn. The suspected Firefly opened MG fire at the positions of 5th Company - exactly where I expected it to, at a HMG position. I ordered the HMG to hide (only 2 survivors by now, anyway) but I also had a few teams around, so I told them to disperse. Worked well enough for most of them, but I made the mistake of sending one team away in the direction exactly opposite to the incoming fire. Three out of 4 men were cut down by the MG fire that passed through the trees, without my opponent even seeing them, probably...


An indirect mortar strike is coming in on the 5th Company, so I am getting more infantry out of the way. North Ridge is also receiving mortar fire, a HMG position is getting hit. A few light injuries so far but no casualty.

Meanwhile, the StuG went on a hunt of the enemy Cromwells. All went as planned, the StuG reached the position and spotted the target, nearly 90 degree flanking shot at less than 300 meters. It aimed, fired and hit...


...a tree. And it got worse from there. The puff of smoke after the hit probably obscured the thin vertical line that represents the tank in the eyes of the AI observer, and the StuG lost contact. The Cromwell remained in position, oblivious to the threat. I also lost one soldier covering the StuG to fire from Louvoy - I knew they would be exposed but I needed some infantry up there.
I'll give the StuG 10 seconds and pull it out. Why 10 seconds? It spotted the Cromwell with 20 seconds remaining in the turn. The spotting cycle is 7 seconds, so the next spotting event should be 1 second into the next turn. If it sees the target again, it will need 5 seconds to aim and fire. After that it doesn't matter - Stafford will pull the tank out, out of sight. And don't forget there is a second Cromwell to the left of the first one, which I do not see - it may already be lining up its shot at the StuG. Better get out of there soon.
 
Shtugg should stuff it. It's his own sister Loeftwaeffe who's to blame for that.
 
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