The Canadians attempt to unpick a piece of the German defensive scheme on the Verrieres Ridge south of Caen.
Requires CW and MG modules
| WHAT VERSION OF COMBAT MISSION IS THE FILE FOR? | CM : BATTLES FOR NORMANDY |
| WHAT IS THE SCENARIO / MAP TITLE? | le Noyer |
| FILE TYPE? | SCENARIO PLAYABLE AS H2H AND VS AI |
| DOES THE SCENARIO / MAP REQUIRE BATTLEFRONT DLC OR MODS? | YES [PLEASE ADVISE WHAT IS REQUIRED IN DESCRIPTION FIELD] |
| WHAT SIZE IS THE BATTLE? | SMALL |
| WHAT ARE THE MAP DIMESIONS? | 1744m x 1200m |
| WHAT TYPE OF BATTLE IS THIS? | ATTACK |
| WHAT IS THE LENGTH OF THE SCENARIO? | 45 – 59 MINUTES |
| WHERE IS THE SCENARIO / MAP BASED? | FRANCE [BATTLES FOR NORMANDY] |
| WHEN IS THE SCENARIO BASED? | JULY 1944 |
| WHAT TIME OF DAY IS THE SCENARIO BASED? | DAY |
| WHAT IS THE WEATHER IN THE SCENARIO? | CLEAR |
| NATIONALITY OF SIDE ONE | Canadian |
| NATIONALITY OF SIDE TWO | SS |
| THIS SCENARIO IS BEST PLAYED AS… | H2H, SIDE ONE VS AI |
| SUBMITTED BY? | Jon ‘JonS’ Sowden |
About Author
Is this historical? I attempted a Turn-based try as Canadians, but gave it a Alt-Q. I like that it is a short scenario, but would have liked to have had the Germans actually appear at some point.
I might give this a real-time try at a later point. Is this a fairly good representation of the upcoming Battle-Pack? Thanks.
The Canadians are #attacking#. You’re supppsed to go find the Germans, they won’t come to you.
Hint: they’re where the victory locations are, especially the ‘le Norey’ one 😉
OK, but the write-up alludes to ‘counter-attacks’ and seems to false flag a “right flank” objective. In all honesty, the ‘cuteness’ factor gets stretched, and the immobilized Germans are basically going to rear-end any attackers that get too far. Basically, you should just go for killing Germans and taking big valued objectives that are practilly overlapped. A bit harsh? Ok, but has this been playtested? Be nice if the designer at least weighed in with some substantial verbiage.
Ok, thanks, I will send the shermans over there…
Are you for realz? I *strongly* suggest you READ the scenario briefing.
For this, and every scenario.
I see, now I realzize that the Germans also have immobilized AFV. This is the best scenario that includes immobilized AFV forces for both sides.
Ever.
I too havent yet seen the Germans – but they have certainly seen me ! Hidden MG fire causing trouble but we will return the favour with some 25lb goodness. And Im looking forward to the battle pack. Thanks Jon.
Some comments in this discussion have been moderated. Please ensure any criticism is constructive and not personal.
You are doing great work here Bootie. Thanks. And, I am not being disingenious.
Just finished this scenario – it was good. It was also a slow starter, this is not a firefight where the Canadians and Leibstandarte start exchanging beautiful words three turns in. I kept a very concise AAR here
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13u1acmzwf5mEJL8yq4fAkPGKPMRWAdgR73LkwhxpUiY/edit?usp=sharing
if Jon wants to check it. I can also provide saved games, as I was saving on key points (or what it looked like key points).
Certainly I didn’t come up with the best plan ever. Suspecting that there was some German OP on the “Right Flank” objective, I moved on that little butte in force with two platoons, using 16 Plt/D Coy to explore the left flank. That took some valuable time. Nevertheless, I was commanded the high ground… which meant that the German mortars and very heavy caliber artillery started pounding the crest. I positioned my ATG’s on the forward slope, waiting for an armoured counterattack coming up from Tilly. Let’s say that there was a substantial target density in the area, and I guess it was unavoidable that one of the ATGs would get zeroed in by the magic AI artillery capabilities.
The terrain is very interesting, deceptively open. It was very hard to pin down the position of the forward German defense line – I was only seeing tracers and casualties, but not the firing positions of those bastards. One HMG on the left flank was very hard to pin down, even with the concentrated fire of the Shermans. Those guys were quite useless.
Curiously enough, most of the German casualties were due to the initial artillery barrage (or so I reckon, due to the position of certain “mounds” of German soldiers).
TL;DR Excellent scenario that illustrates how frustrating and bloody was the Canadian campaign in Normandy.
Why does the artillery smoke shells disappear? I ordered a HE barrage from the 25 pounders and it used up all the HE and smoke, yet no smoke was actually fired? Is this a bug or specific to this scenario?
Check you “Toggle Smoke” setting. Alt-K toggles it “ON” and “OFF”. It may be toggled “off” without your knowledge. Happened once to me. See “Options” page in CM Engine Manual.
He refers to the fact that by firing all HE ordnance the battery becomes out of ammo, even if there’s plenty of Smoke rounds available.
That has been around for a while now, and it is obviously not WAD.
Yes, I should have been more clear. Seems odd. Not the scenario designer’s issue, of course, but maybe a workaround is to shoot off the smoke rounds first? But, that was not my plan. In any case, murder the Germans with the artillery. 25 pounders are not really heavy artillery but the game makes them killers of troops in emplacements.
I took the trouble to go and check with Battlefront’s help desk. John (Elvis) told me that the forumsplanations for it weren’t ringing any bells, so he’s going to check up the issue.
Spoilers Alert below
A great little scenario with a well laid out defence.
sent the recon troop to right flank and found it empty so this conserved troops for the main assault on Le Noyer. pinned down by hidden MG fire so used one troop of 25lb along this. partially suppressed the defence to get in close but at heavy cost. then gradually won the firefight for the enclosure. Suffered friendly fire from my other 25lb shoot when the observer was KIA while spotting. took out 1 AFV with the ATGs before killed by mortar DF. won a tactical victory, but there were only 3 germans left in Le Noyer so somewhat frustrated. ( I prefer the CM I version of scoring of objectives rather than the all or nothing now). Biggest mistake was not using the shermans to lay down smoke for the assault which would have saved a lot of cas.
Thanks for a great little battle, looking forward to the battle pack.
Just unload the artillery on the objectives. Do a left flanking attack, use smoke from infantry since it blows with the wind, break in and move across the ‘compound’. I also just walked into the right flank and there was nothing there. The objectives are dissimilar it seems. The far objectives are unreachable and somehow valued less?
Tanks seem to have limited use and the carriers are supposed to advance further than the tanks? Maybe it would be better if the tanks were ‘released’ once troops touch an objective. Not sure if it can be designed that way but more realistic than the immob ilized tanks sitting still when artillery arrives.
H2H might be very difficult for the Canadians.
Another workaround for a designer would be to just have another battery that just has smoke shells. The other two would just have HE.
I believe this is an old problem.
Interesting battle, to say the least. One question: are the Allies supposed to have TP’s? I saw two of them on the map, but couldn’t find them during setup. Am I a little goofy here or what? Liked the design of the battle – some significant choices to make – smoke, HE – now or later?
Superb scenario. Just gave it a run through; took Le Noyer easily enough by advancing swiftly with the two lead platoons under rolling smoke from the artillery battries; but recoiled attempting to push on for the corner objective. Despite knocking out a bit of the enemy armor by walking up the AT guns, the advance over the open ground devolved into a bloody mess, doubly so due to no further smoke to lob.
Superb historical recreation – superb as always JonS.