1254 hrs, Turn 4. Good news - Stafford doesn't want me to bore you with troop movements for the next 20 minutes of the game and wants to kick off the action early. While my forces are deploying around Wynton, a Humber III armored car with a death wish drives down the road straight towards the town. Several StuGs fail to spot it, but that's not a surprise, I ordered hatches closed in the expectation of the air attack. Which, by the way, did not come. I should have realized that Stafford gave a 5-minute delay, so I should still have one minute to move or take cover.
Anyway, this armored car reaches Wynton and then turns off the road to use buildings as cover. I claimed earlier here, in relation to the risk of friendly fire from aircraft, that we were safely separated by distance - not anymore, we are now 40 meters apart
Meanwhile, a Cromwell IV tank is spotted just south of the highest hill on the map. At the end of the turn it just slams the brakes and spots one of my vehicles - probably one of my empty halftracks.
A further light armor contact is reported in the woods just east of Wynton. No shots are exchanged - everyone on both sides seems too busy getting to their destinations - but that will soon change.
So, what is Stafford up to? It may be just a small probe to cause some losses among exposed troops on the move, to find out what I've got, and buy time for the rest of his troops to catch up. It might also be a more serious attack that hopes to catch me unprepared and disorganized as I have just moved out of the setup zone. The coordination with the airstrike points to the latter, but it could be very risky for him. I don't mind fighting on my half of the map and I am ready for the most part. The main worry is now the position of 1st Platoon, 5th Company, who overextended themselves and could end up under fire by armor from multiple sides. Note - the infantry contact on the road probably isn't real, I think it is a shadow left over by the crew of the armored car, but I may be wrong about that.
Perhaps this is a good time to show the overall situation and explain my plan. As I said, my first priority is to secure Wynton - the town and the terrain surrounding it. Going forward from there, there are two ridgelines that split the map in two - you can't see to the other side unless you get on top of them, like the Cromwell tank has done just now. The problem with ridges and hilltops is, of course, that the more you can see from them the more you get shot at. The Cromwell is in FOV of a whole StuG platoon and I hope it will stay long enough to get sighted - and lighted. I only want to put scouts on the ridges to gather intel, and infantry behind to defend, but I don't plan to go across. Instead, I want my forces to converge in the center, around Louvoy, which is in a valley and has a fair amount of concealment and cover for infantry. Stafford probably has a similar plan, so Louvoy might become a choke point where we will need to decide the battle. Or maybe not.
The map below this general idea of avoiding the ridges (yellow dashed line). The advance is supposed to be led by the 2nd and 5th Companies. I don't have a more detailed plan past securing Wynton - this is a meeting engagement and as you see, things change fast. I'll start drawing up plans for specific moves once I deal with the current troubles. The approaches to Wynton and the ridgelines are now covered by StuGs and infantry is either in position or getting into position soon. 2nd Company will finish their move to secure the northern flank. 3rd Company, which was originally tasked to take Wynton in full force, gets new orders to minimize damage if the aircraft end up bombing the town. Only 2nd platoon will stay and defend, 1st and 3rd will stay back. I may try splitting off scout teams and let them run around as bait for strafing runs - I observed that the aircraft tend to strike what they can see best.
About Cromwells: they are potentially very dangerous. They are fast and StuGs can't keep up at close range as they have no turrets. This would be the case for any Allied armor but for Cromwells (and Stuarts) in particular. I must keep a safe distance and have a line of assault guns that can cover each other, screened by infantry. 1st StuG Platoon in the south is in a good position, but not a great one - there were absolutely no hull down positions all the way from the setup zone to the southern ridge where the Cromwell is. In the end I found some partial hull down positions for them near the southern edge, but they have nowhere to retreat if they meet something they can't handle.
In the next turn I may lose some empty halftracks but I also hope to get an armor kill, maybe even two... if I am lucky. I will order artillery on the woods in front of me for the eventuality that this is the start of a full-scale attack and the battle will be fought here and now.
